Should Iain Duncan Smith Be Sacked?

[Gromit]

An Audit Office report is highly critical of IDS and his department. In short, they are accused of wasting and lot of money, and hiding the fact. Any other failing minister would be quiety removed asap, but IDS is popular among the hard right of the Conservative Party, and Cameron needs them on board. So what is Dave to do?

// The Coalition’s flagship scheme to overhaul the benefits system has been savaged by an official audit, which accused ministers of attempting the huge reform without a detailed plan.
The highly critical report led to Labour allegations that Iain Duncan Smith has overseen a “cover up” over Universal Credit by repeatedly denying problems with the programme. Mr Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is expected to be called to the House of Commons today to answer MPs’ questions about the programme.

The Department for Work and Pensions failed to act on those problems fully until earlier this year, when “serious concerns” forced ministers to go back to the drawing board. That “reset” has seen £34 million of spending on new computer systems written off, with more such losses expected. //

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10287672/Iain-Duncan-Smiths-welfare-reforms-given-mauling-by-audit.html

It is clear that Iain Duncan Smith has failed dismally in his post. Would Cameron dare to sack him in the forthcoming reshuffle?

[andy-hughes]

It's unlikely.

Call-me-Dave is under a lot of pressure at the moment - seen quite rightly as a PM out of touch with his party, and the country, so making waves by sacking a popular figure would be difficult.

That's not to say that IDS does not deserve the sack - clearly he does, but in politics, what people deserve and what they get are rarely one and the same thing.

[douglas9401]

The man's all ideas and no delivery. get rid of him and plonk him on the back benches where he can do less harm.

[youngmafbog]

You only have half the story, no surprise there.

IDS found early on that the Government department (inherited from labour) was incompetant and commisioned an enquiry (which is referenced in this report). From this inquiry that showed the incompetance someone was bough int from outside to get it going, unfortunaltey he died but now has been replaced.

The report actually relates to the period that IDS had also recognized a probel with the department, inherited from New Labour, and was dealing with it.

It is also very likely that a right-on labour bent department was deliberately trying to crush the reforms from within.

IDS is interviewed on SKy and can be viewed from here: http://news.sky.com/

Of course it will be your privilege to call him a liar but if any of you lefties do this please provide proof of your accusation!!

[youngmafbog]

Oh and 34m written off. Not good but in the light of 30Bn saving ??

[douglas9401]

It is also very likely................

Right then.

[jim360]

Unfortunately I'm effectively bound (by proxy) by the Official Secrets Act and so unable to answer your post in detail. Suffice it to say that I have plenty of evidence against that post, a post that is filled with total and utter rubbish.

[Octavius]

So if he found this incompetence 3 years ago when he started the job, why has he continued with renewed incompetence?

I doubt many of us would be given 3 years to make a change if we were in charge of something, 6 - 12 months, and even then blaming a predecessor would be out of the question.

[AB Editor]

"Should Iain Duncan Smith Be Sacked?"

Nah.

MPs are almost always bad with any kind of technological infrastructure, I don't know why...

We all agree that a centralised benefit system would be, er, beneficial (assuming it works), right?

[ToraToraTora]

No

[youngmafbog]

Not going to do a Snowden in the interests of the people then jim?

Stating a post is rubbish then claiming you cannot talk about it so your statement can be verified is a bit off.

[jim360]

Yes, I'll give you that. But I'm still angry on behalf of the people I know in the DWP who are unable to respond to such unfounded criticism.

[hawksley]

Bad news for Mr Cameron, and Mr IDS, excellent news for the rest of us .

[Canary42]

When are people going to realise that all the failings of the present government are all Labour's fault ?

We get told it enough times by the Rabid Righties.

[jim360]

"[Iain Dunan Smith] blamed the problems [with Universal Credit] on a lack of 'professionalism' and a 'culture of secrecy' among the team of civil servants originally in charge of the programme."

He knows the Civil Servants legally cannot defend themselves against this charge. Odious man.

[hawksley]

Canary42 I think the person on this thread who always blames the previous government ,, as the cons always do, ,, has limited tunnel vision,and certainly has been brain washed by the party ??? I think he may recognize himself.

[Gromit]

Jim360

People are not blaming the benefit office workers who are at the sharp end for the failings. They are told what the policy is and have to follow it, even though they know it is failing the public. Morale is low in the DWP, but that pre-dated IDS and the Coalition.

The Benefit system was/is very complicated and dealing with cases very difficult and slow for the people requiring processing. Unfortunately IDS followed his own ideology to reform it rather than learn the problems and the best solutions from the people who work on it daily. The result is the Universal credit will not do what it was supposed to do, and the public lose out.

[jim360]

Even the Civil Servants at the very top are probably getting undeserving flak. The reality is that they are being ignored, or replaced by people from outside because Iain Duncan Smith doesn't want to hear what they are saying: that his Universal Credit scheme is going too fast and will not work in its current set-up.

[Gromit]

It is being trialled in my area. The sounds are that it is not working. But I doubt IDS will listen and press on with rolling it out nationwide.

[andy-hughes]

The problem with IT projects is the same as tking your car to the garage - you have no idea what is needed, or how much it will cost, you have to trust the guys there to know what they are doing, and not rip yoou off.

The problem with government IT projects is the time involved. It's fine for IDS to glibly promise delivery in 2017 - there is an election before then, so a slim chance he will be in government, or even in the same post when this goes belly up,

The final issue is accountability - no-one is ever going to be held responsible for any of the government's IT cock-ups - no-one ever is, and that comforting knowledge that it is never ever going to be your fault is a wonderful cushion for ministers, IT staff, and everyone involved.

[mikey4444]

I am far from being a supporter of our current Tory government but the reforms necessary to our welfare budget are well overdue. You need someone strong and resilient to lead this reform and IDS would appear to be the man. He can come out of a bruising encounter with Humphries, with his dignity reasonably in place, and that says a lot !

As Ed has already said on here, any previous attempt at introducing IT new systems to any national roll-out has always been fraught with problems. I remember queueing around the block for 7 hours, in the rain, a few years ago, just to get a new Passport. Never trust the pointy-heads when they tell you that ::

A...its only going to cost so much, and
B...it will be ready by a certain date.

They don't so much lie as guess wildly, and hope for the best.

What I am less happy about is the way the Welfare to Work process is working. We have had an awful lot of people quite clearly not able to work, like paraplegics and the terminally ill who have been found fit to work. Every time these examples come up in the media, some ministerial gonk tries to sweep it under the carpet, but there is clearly a serious problem with the complete process.

This Government will be soon be out of power anyway, so leave IDS where he is for the time being.