The short answer is no – he was lying again, according to this article that Welfare Weekly discovered on The Guardian‘s website:

The statistics don’t seem to support the claim that the policy has created a “rush to the job centre” – unless all 2,000 of those the IFS say might have entered work by May 2014 as a result of the cap descended on one job centre on the same day. But there is evidence that the policy has provided incentive to a small number of people to move into work.

For a policy that gets so much media coverage (this article included), the benefit cap affects a relatively small number of people (27,000 families) and raises a relatively small sum of money for the exchequer (£100m each year).

Analysis of the DWP’s figures suggests that there is still a lot that we don’t know about the effects of the measure. Instead of moving into work, people subject to the benefits cap might cut back on spending, use up savings or accrue debts.

What we do know is that the majority have not responded to the benefit cap by finding a job.

Read the full article – there’s a lot of it, on either the Guardian website or Welfare Weekly.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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