Iain Duncan Smith; Secretary of State for Work & Pensions
That is Smith's background as far as major positions are concerned. Most recently he has drawn considerable controversy since taking office, particularly regarding his attitudes to social security and its claimants (both working and non-working,) as well as controversies surrounding the DWP's iniquitous use of statistics (BBC, 2013: Online.) He has consistently claimed that his plans are working -using figures and evidence- even though when such evidence painted a picture to the contrary (according to the UK Statistics Authority, 2013,) he defended his claims by saying "I know I am right" (Wintour, 2013: Online.)
Nothing exemplifies this kind of manoeuvring more than my own discovery a few months ago: Writing in The Guardian about his controversial Work Programme (a system wherein benefits claimants receive benefits from the government in exchange for working for companies such as Poundland- a particularly controversial case (see Morse, 2013,) IDS claimed in his humbly-titled article, 'I'm proud of our welfare reforms' which ran with the strap line: "I don't apologise for trying to make the welfare state fair- it's something only this government can do," that "Our Work Programme has launched and the industry tells us that so far 321,000 people have found jobs through it." The italics in that sentence represent a hyperlink to another Guardian article, the headline of which read: 'Welfare to work scheme failing to get people work, say figures' (my emphasis.) The strap line read: "Just 5.3% of people on incapacity benefit were helped into employment for at least six months by Work Programme." The article, from Butler (2013a) further stated that "Ministers were upbeat about the data, claiming that more than 130,000 jobseekers had "escaped long-term unemployment and found lasting work" as a result of the work programme." (My emphasis.)
Far from being a good idea to want people to work for a private company for their state benefits, therefore degrading the value of the work carried out by current employees when those companies, like Poundland, have ample profitability to pay for such workers, which ultimately exacerbates our economic whims via more benefit claimants and low-paid workers, the fact that he linked to evidence running contrary to his opinion startles me beyond belief. How can a Cabinet Minister of Her Majesty's Government create such a transparent lie!
Other exploits include Smith's 2012 Welfare Reform Act, specifically Section 69 Sub-section 344 Paragraph 2, which stipulates a means-tested approach to social housing (designated by local authorities) vis-a-vis bedroom size determinants, whereby 'extra' bedrooms not used by children or pensioners will suffer an "under occupancy penalty/subsidy," a decision commonly referred to as the "Bedroom Tax." This resonates memories with the so-called Poll Tax introduced at the end of, and which in part caused the downfall of, the Thatcher ministry in 1990; the Community Charge was amended to take account of individual bands and rates of social homes as opposed to being a simple flat tax that left some worse off than others. It was replaced by the Council Tax in 1993 by the Major ministry (BBC, 2005: Online.) The 'bedroom tax' has been criticised as being unfair by UN specialist Raquel Rolnik a couple of months ago (Johnston, 2013: Online) and has also been seen as a waste of money and government resources, as criticised by celebrity businessman Theo Paphitis on the BBC panel show Question Time in 2012.
The main problem of course is that there isn't enough housing to move people into, with the DWP itself not knowing how many will need to be moved or where they will go; even if all pieces of such a jigsaw were fitted together optimally, the predicted £480 million saving (Butler, 2013b: Online- the figure is likely to be some £160 million less than predicted, according to a York academic) would be wasted on administrative costs associated with its implementation. Not only that but people will just not pay it. My source linking to the Poll Tax demonstrates this problem, with roughly 20% of people not paying the tax and simply not registering on the housing list or living in a 'single' room with a partner etc. This ill-thought out policy will, and has already in part, failed. Even a majority of the British public don't want it according to a ComRes poll (2013.)
A recent criticism of IDS has been his failed IT infrastructure surrounding the implementation of his Universal Credit scheme, a method of rolling all benefits into one package (Kirkup, 2013: Online.) The system has cost the taxpayers £425 million so far but with failures so consistent and manifold, £140 million of that, including numerous computer systems, faces being written off (Johnstone, 2013: Online.) This is yet another failure of IDS and is testament to his deficiencies as a Secretary of State; he is unfit for office in my opinion.
I could go on with how much I personally detest IDS as a person, but I feel that this video taken from Question Time filmed in November of 2012 says more than I need to. If you need more evidence of how much of an unlikable person he is, search for his other defences of his workfare (the Work Programme) scheme and you'll see what I mean. It's much worse to hear it in person than to read his IQ-reducing, transparent, completely bullshit articles, that have about as much integrity as a desert has water.
I hope you have found this critique enjoyable and informative. As a final criticism of Iain Duncan Smith, HERE, is where he said he could live on £53 a week. And HERE is the petition that urges him to prove it, by living in such circumstances for a whole year.
He has yet to rise to the challenge . . .
Thanks for reading this post and seeing as you're here, give this a watch:
The Bedroom Tax Song!
More Recent Critique of UKIP
REFERENCES:
- BBC (2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3223853.stm [Online] [accessed November 5th 2013]
- BBC (2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2495000/2495911.stm [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- BBC (2013) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22462265 [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Brown, D (2001) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/08/election2001.comment7 'Austen Chamberlain, history's first Hague' The Guardian June 8th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Butler, P (2013a) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jun/27/welfare-work-failing-figures?guni=Article:in%20body%20link 'Wellfare to work failing to get people work, figures say' The Guardian June 27th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Butler, P (2013b) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/bedroom-tax-ministers-likely-savings 'Bedroom tax: savings likely to be '£160 million less than official projections' The Guardian October 14th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- ComRes. (2013) The People Bedroom Tax Poll February 13th-14th [Available from: http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/852/the-people-bedroom-tax-poll.htm] [accessed November 9th 2013]
- Duncan Smith, I (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/proud-welfare-reforms-fair-benefits 'I'm proud of our welfare reforms' The Guardian July 28th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Morse, F (2013) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/20/iain-duncan-smiths-explodes-on-lbc-over-workfare_n_2725765.html 'Iain Duncan Smith's anger over Poundland, Workfare & Cait Reilly boils over on LBC' Huffington Post UK February 20th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Johnston, I (2013) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/un-investigator-raquel-rolnik-calls-for-governments-bedroom-tax-to-be-axed-8807678.html 'UN investigator Raquel Rolnik calls for government's 'bedroom tax' to be axed' The Independent September 11th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Johnstone, R (2013) http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2013/11/botched-universal-credit-project-could-cost-millions/ 'Botched Universal Credit project 'could cost millions'' Public Finance November 7th [Online] [accessed November 9th 2013]
- Kirkup, J (2013) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10431631/Chaotic-welfare-reforms-should-be-postponed.html 'Chaotic welfare reforms 'should be postponed'' The Telegraph November 7th [Online] [accessed November 9th 2013]
- UK Statistics Authority. (2013) 'Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Andrew Dilnott CBE' Letter to Iain Duncan Smith May 9th [Online] "Department for work and pensions statistics" [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c. 5) London: HMSO [Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/5/notes/division/5/3/6] [accessed November 8th 2013]
- Wintour, P (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jul/15/iain-duncan-smith-statistics-benefits-cap 'Iain Duncan Smith defends use of statistics over benefits cap' The Guardian July 15th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]
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