My Old Friend IDS Has Done It Again

Last updated on July 11th, 2023 at 11:54 am

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Iain Duncan Smith, IDS, (or IBS to his friends) has excelled himself once more.  His Department is completely and utterly incompetent and he should fall on his Biro, that he’s probably claimed on expenses anyway.  just as an aside he claimed (and was paid) almost £91 for some Banner Pens. He must write a lot.

You don’t need me to remind you what a shit-storm there has been lately about a  certain organisation seemingly fudging its official figures, and how they have had their ‘kitemark’ revoked as they cannot currently be relied upon.

You would think, would you not, that in the light of that any Government Department releasing some official figures would double check them for accuracy. Wouldn’t you? Or is it just me?

Then I found this headline;

Universal credit claimants not counted in jobless figures, says Labour

It would appear to an old duffer like me that the government have made fudging their figures so bloody complicated that they don’t even understand how to do it themselves.

For as long as I can remember there has been a seemingly endless see-saw of figures between Unemployed and Incapacitated.  Depending upon the government of the day, their colour and this week’s message people have been swapped between lists in order to get one or the other looking better. Am I being too cynical, because that’s EXACTLY how it looks to me in Angry Towers.

Errors by the Department for Work and Pensions have meant claimants are being excluded from official unemployment figures.  The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which publishes unemployment figures, said the DWP had not been able to supply it with information in a way that has allowed Universal Credit claimants to be counted.

The shadow work and pensions secretary, Rachel Reeves said “If David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith can’t ensure UC claimants are included on official unemployment figures, how can we have any confidence in their ability to deliver this flagship project?  There are now serious questions about whether the government even knows how many people are being left off official unemployment figures.”

The fact that some Universal Credit claimants are working is neither here nor there. The DWP clearly doesn’t have a database which is capable of separating them out, schoolboy error.

In a period when HMG has severely criticised the Police and its Stats you really would think they would get it right. Stat Fudging on an Imperial Scale.

Roll on 2015.

Iain-Duncan-Smith-3002319

Iain Duncan Smith DWP

Iain Duncan Smith

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3 thoughts on “My Old Friend IDS Has Done It Again”

  1. Within my extended family there are is one long-term unemployed adult male and several young men – not one of them is classified as unemployed. The adult male, who is a skilled telecomms engineer, has been on multiple schemes after Job Seekers Allowance expired. Few of the young men have skills or jobs and training has been avoided.

    In one part of the West Midlands a year ago there were more people on disability than Job Seekers, a local industrialist commented that thousands had been moved on the unemployment figures in the last few years.

    Then there is the evidence of simple loitering in our city centres, numbers of adult males sipping pints in places like Witherspoons during the ‘working day’ and the younger members of the family who do little else but play electronic games and sleep.

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