IDS Defends Use of Statistics over Benefits Cap

Iain Duncan Smith has said he was right to claim that benefit claimants subject to the new welfare cap were being forced into work, despite being criticised by the government statistics watchdog for making the assertion. The work and pensions secretary said: "I have a belief I am right," as he published polling showing how popular the measure was with the public. He also denied claims that families subject to a cap would be made homeless, arguing that "the homelessness figures have hardly moved at all".  Duncan Smith has already been criticised by the Office for National Statistics for claiming the cap had led to 8,000 people finding work. He was told by the ONS it was not possible to find any causal link between the cap and those finding work. An unrepentant Duncan Smith told Today: "You cannot absolutely prove those two things are connected – you cannot disprove what I said. I believe this to be right. I believe we are already seeing people going back to work who were not going back to work until this group were capped."  Read more on the Guardian website.