Ian Duncan Smith

IDS religious beliefs not shown in policy - New Statesman

Ian Duncan Smith is a Christian whose actions and beliefs would be entirely alien to Jesus.

That is the claim of an article in The New Statesman, which shows that, despite using the language of 'sin' and 'redemption', Smith's policies are not compatible with a Christian way of life

Laurie Penny, the article's author, says: "Iain Duncan Smith is a second-rate thinker and a third-rate leader who is wrecking civil society with his misguided moral crusade."

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Unemployment

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Ian Duncan Smith

IDS

Welfare

Unversal Credit fiasco continues as IDS blames civil servants

The chaos surrounding the government's doomed Universal Credit system continues today as it is described as overambitious, badly managed and poor value for money.

The National Audit Office (NAO), the watchdog for publc spending, made the damning criticisms in the report 'Universal Credit: early progress.

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Government welfare failings cost £1.5b, but does Labour have the answer?

Labour has accused the government of ruling over a chaotic welfare reform system as multiple failures come home to roost.

The party's work and pensions spokesman, Liam Byrne, estimated the cost of youth contract, universal credit, the bedroom tax, the work programme and work capability tests could end up costing the country nearly £1.5 billion.

The coalition introduced some of these measures as part of its austerity programme to cut costs, and an accusation of financial incompetence will not sit well with ministers.

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Ian Duncan Smith - 'I'm proud of welfare reforms'

Ian Duncan Smith has written on the government's welfare reforms on The Guardian's website.

Proudly proclaiming that the "government has embarked on one of the most aggressive programmes of welfare reform Britain has ever seen", the Work and Pensions Secretary appears to believe that aggression is a notable virtue when dealing with the lives of some of Britain's poorest people.

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Jobcentres should not have a monopoly - IDS thinktank

Jobcentres are failing and private companies and charities should be paid to provide competition to them, a thinktank has said.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), which was set up by current Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith, has pointed to a current system which sees 40% of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claimants who get a job signing on again within six months.

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Statistics authority raps Ian Duncan Smith on benefits claim

Ian Duncan Smith's claim that 8,000 people have left benefits due to his new cap has been denied by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Duncan Smith had claimed that this fall showed that limiting claimant families to a maximum of £26,000 per year in benefits was having the desired effect:

"Already we've seen 8,000 people who would have been affected by the cap move into jobs. This clearly demonstrates that the cap is having the desired impact."

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Government accused of misleading voters on benefit stats

The government has been accused of misleading voters in the way it quotes statistics on benefits.

Writing in The Guardian, Jonathan Portes and Declan Gaffney believe both Ian Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Grant Shapps, the Conservative party Chairman, have misled the public.

Portes and Gaffney write "these misrepresentations of official statistics cross a line between legitimate "spin", where a government selects the data that best supports its case, and outright inaccuracy."

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Government using more negative language about benefits

The government is using more negative and loaded language about benefits and claimants, a study has found.

The Guardian has examined the text of ministerial speeches and press releases from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over the last year, and found that the language used has become far more judgemental than in the final year of the previous Labour government.

The newspaper wrote:

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IDS - graduates not too good to work in supermarkets

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith has hit out at graduates who believe they are too good to work in supermarkets.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Duncan Smith denied that his work experience programmes were a form of slave labour, and criticised geology graduate Cait Reilly who had brought a successful court case against the government alledging this.

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