Iain Duncan Smith resigns from Cabinet

[Mister M]

Anyone who didn't know could have watched his interview on Andrew Marr this morning and actually believed him. Until you remember this is the man who was willing to go to the appeals court to force disabled people to give up their bedrooms and victims of domestic abuse to pay more for panic rooms.

 

Yes and there are apparently some documents that the IDS & the DWP have tried to suppress for 4 years, but the courts ordered them to be released this coming week:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iain-duncan-smith-lost-court-battle-to-suppress-publication-of-potentially-embarrassing-dwp-memos-a6940881.html

[banjodeano]

Yes and there are apparently some documents that the IDS & the DWP have tried to suppress for 4 years, but the courts ordered them to be released this coming week:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iain-duncan-smith-lost-court-battle-to-suppress-publication-of-potentially-embarrassing-dwp-memos-a6940881.html

 

Brilliant, its all falling apart for the NASTY PARTY

[Mister M]

wheres foxy lady when you need her to answer ( I bet its all browns fault)

 

She'll be over at the Labour Party thread, convincing no-one that isn't a Tory

[atticus]

According to the Sunday Times today an aid of IDS's claims that pressure was being put on him to cut the disabled budget by much more; and there is a paper trail leading to number 10 to prove it.

[I1L2T3]

Yes and there are apparently some documents that the IDS & the DWP have tried to suppress for 4 years, but the courts ordered them to be released this coming week:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iain-duncan-smith-lost-court-battle-to-suppress-publication-of-potentially-embarrassing-dwp-memos-a6940881.html

 

The existing technology in government departments cannot deliver it, and could never have delivered it without massively increasing the cost of delivery.

 

They wanted multiple government departments to integrate together, constantly exchanging information in real time in order to continuously recalculate and re-assess millions of claims, with the data driving it being supplied by employers, again in real time. Hundreds of interfaces within the departments, and effectively millions of interfaces between employers and departments. Nothing like it has ever been done before, and the project was hampered from the start by the disparate ways in which departments operated their systems, by the formats in which they held data, and by the quality of that data.

 

I know enough people who were on the inside of this and from what they told me it was a non-starter. In 2012-13 they even completely binned most of what they had developed and started again. They've had two attempts at it and still it has only a fraction of the people claiming on it who were supposed to be on it by now.

 

Probably going to be quite a scandal.

 

---------- Post added 20-03-2016 at 19:45 ----------

 

Tory MP Heidi Allen is the voice of reason and on the side of IDS.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03ndjb9?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_daily_politics_and_sunday_politics&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=news_central

 

Certainly a breath of fresh air. Makes you realise how many decent people become MPs for the major parties then under the party whip are forced to support things they find abhorrent. Fair play to this MP for making a stand though.

[MikeFrank]

Well, Osborne has already indicated that the PIP reductions will be reconsidered and may be cancelled as a result of the backlash from Tory backbenchers, so he is by no means safe. Recanting only 2 days after making an announcement is a pretty sure sign that he misread what his own party would swallow, and what his own backbenchers were prepared to defend when talking to their own constituents.

 

I noticed a point raised by IDS that the actual amount will have to be cut, if not from PIP from another part of his budget and this was an important part of why he resigned.

[I1L2T3]

I noticed a point raised by IDS that the actual amount will have to be cut, if not from PIP from another part of his budget and this was an important part of why he resigned.

 

Basically, Osborne has committed to cutting £12bn from welfare.

 

50% of welfare spend is on pensioners and that is ring-fenced because the Tories dare not upset the part of the electorate that is most likely to vote Tory. That 50% is untouchable and IDS could have argued forever and Cameron/Osborne would not have let him cut it.

 

So the cuts had to come from the remaining 50% of the welfare budget. They picked the easiest targets, the disabled, no doubt expecting that years of demonising anybody on welfare would make it an easy ride. I guess if they read SheffieldForum they'd think that because there have been no end of posters mounting disgusting attacks on disabled welfare claimants. They're on welfare right? They must be scroungers right? Easy targets right?

 

The worst thing for me though is that Cameron should know more than anybody what it means to be disabled. His own son, Ivan, was profoundly disabled and the Cameron family relied heavily on the state for support. Ivan's care was not delivered in a bubble. The Cameron's would have encountered other disabled people and their families perhaps on a daily basis at times.

 

They cooked up the recent attacks on disabled people together, PIP & ESA the lot. Scumbags.

[sutty27]

Basically, Osborne has committed to cutting £12bn from welfare.

 

50% of welfare spend is on pensioners and that is ring-fenced because the Tories dare not upset the part of the electorate that is most likely to vote Tory. That 50% is untouchable and IDS could have argued forever and Cameron/Osborne would not have let him cut it.

 

So the cuts had to come from the remaining 50% of the welfare budget. They picked the easiest targets, the disabled, no doubt expecting that years of demonising anybody on welfare would make it an easy ride. I guess if they read SheffieldForum they'd think that because there have been no end of posters mounting disgusting attacks on disabled welfare claimants. They're on welfare right? They must be scroungers right? Easy targets right?

 

The worst thing for me though is that Cameron should know more than anybody what it means to be disabled. His own son, Ivan, was profoundly disabled and the Cameron family relied heavily on the state for support. Ivan's care was not delivered in a bubble. The Cameron's would have encountered other disabled people and their families perhaps on a daily basis at times.

 

They cooked up the recent attacks on disabled people together, PIP & ESA the lot. Scumbags.

 

Any policy that takes welfare from those that don't need it and gives it to those that do need is good in my eyes, sadly there are too many people that get it but don't need it complaining about loosing it.

[I1L2T3]

Any policy that takes welfare from those that don't need it and gives it to those that do need is good in my eyes, sadly there are too many people that get it but don't need it complaining about loosing it.

 

There seems to be little evidence that the ESA and PIP changes would have achieved that. Even Tory back benchers were queuing up to attack the policy.

[sutty27]

There seems to be little evidence that the ESA and PIP changes would have achieved that. Even Tory back benchers were queuing up to attack the policy.

 

The government is changing the assessment criteria for the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to ensure the system is fairer with money targeted at those who need it most.

 

Paul Gray’s independent review found that the assessment criteria may not be working as planned. A subsequent review of cases by DWP health professionals identified that a significant number of people are likely to be getting the benefit despite having minimal to no ongoing daily living extra costs.

 

DWP health professionals reviewed a number of these cases and in 96% of them the likely ongoing extra costs of daily living were nil, low or minimal.

 

So where is the evidence that proves it wouldn't achieve its desired goal?