Duncan Smith rebuked by ONS for misuse of benefit statistics

The claim that 8,000 people moved into work as a result of the benefit cap is "unsupported by the official statistics", says the UK Statistics Authority.

By George Eaton

Once again, the Tories have fallen foul of the number crunchers. After previously rebuking David Cameron for falsely claiming in a Conservative Party political broadcast that the coalition “was paying down Britain’s debts”, the UK Statistics Authority has rapped Iain Duncan Smith for his claim that 8,000 people moved into work as a result of the planned introduction of the coalition’s benefit cap. In response to a complaint from the TUC, Andrew Dilnot, the watchdog’s chair, states that the assertion was “unsupported by the official statistics”.

In a separate letter to Duncan Smith, Dilnot writes that “In the manner and form published, the statistics do not comply fully with the principles of the Code of Practice, particularly in respect of accessibility to the sources of data, information about the methodology and quality of the statistics, and the suggestion that the statistics were shared with the media in advance of their publication.”

You can read both letters in full below.

A Change.org petition calling for Duncan Smith to appear before the work and pensions select committee to explain his use of statistics has been signed by 52,455 people.

Jayne Linney, who submitted the petition said:

This announcement from the UK Statistics Authority is really worrying. Iain Duncan Smith needs to realise that what he says affects people. We live everyday with the reality of the benefit changes and it’s awful to keep hearing people like us portrayed as scroungers. The government can debate policy but it should tell us the truth.

The job of the work and pensions committee is to scrutinise government policy and the action of government ministers. They should question Iain Duncan Smith about his statements and get to the truth behind the statistics.

Last month, as you’ll recall, a petition from the site calling for Duncan Smith to prove his claim that he could live on £53 a week was signed by 475,000 people.

Update: The DWP appears to be suggesting that anecdotal evidence was sufficient to justify the claim.

As Minister for Employment made clear, DWP staff & claimants telling us cap is impacting behaviour & leading to those affected getting work

— DWP Press Office (@dwppressoffice) May 9, 2013