As Iain Duncan Smith leaves his position as work and pensions secretary,will he be remembered as a great reformer’, or the man who made a flawed system worse?In his first budget, or in July 2010,George Osborne promised to “balance the books” by 2015. But he did not explain what he would chop. And that presented an instant problem. The Department for Work and Pensions was by far the largest spending department – but not only had the government, via the “triple lock”, and pledged to increase spending on pensioners,but Iain Duncan Smith’s “titanic idea – rolling six benefits into one universal credit meant more spending on low-paid working people, too. Related: Iain Duncan Smith was being asked to compose more cuts for the working poor. It was morally indefensible Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com