IDS v the poor

So why does IDS need his vast salary.......not forgetting he could probably get by just on his expenses alone.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said he could get by on £7.57 per day if he "had to", as he defended a raft of cuts to welfare payments coming into force today.

Mr Duncan Smith's current salary gives him £1,581.02 a week or £225 a day after tax.

Labour has branded today the start of 'Black April' as a number of cuts and freezes in benefits are taking effect today.

However, Mr Duncan Smith criticised the language of his opponents who claim ministers are hurting the poor.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he said the Coalition is not "attacking or slashing" benefits claimants, but trying to reform the system to make it "fair".

He also admitted the overall welfare bill will carry on rising. Benefit payments to people of working age will only fall to levels last seen in 2009 under the Labour Government by the end of this parliament.

The total bill for all benefits and tax credits is forecast to carry on rising by billions a year well into the second half of the decade.

Mr Duncan Smith said the decision to raise benefits by just one per cent per year - lower than the rate of inflation - is a much better deal than people are getting in other countries.

"What we’re doing, the one per cent restriction we’ve made to the rise in benefits is still a one per cent rise," he said.

"If you were sitting in Ireland or Portugal or many of those other countries, they are actually seeing real cash cuts. So what we’re trying to do is to get control of the welfare bill but to make sure it lowers and it lowers in a way that we can be as fair as possible to people. Without actually slashing or attacking people, we are trying to reform it and change it.”

Mr Duncan Smith, who married into a family of multi-millionaires, insisted he could live on £53 a week after a housing benefit claimant said this is how much money he has a week.

David Bennett, who is in his 50s, is given housing benefit to help him with accommodation costs but said he only has £53 to live on after that.

The market trader earned around £2,700 last year working between 50 and 70 hours a week. Mr Bennett said he has had to borrow money after his housing benefit was cut from £75 a week to £57 per week. His income works out at around £53 per week.

However, most people earning this little would be eligible for about another £36 per week in tax credits if they worked more than 30 hours per week.

The current rate of jobseekers' allowance is up to £56.25 a week for people between the ages of 16 and 24, and up to £71 for an adult over that age.

Mr Duncan said he could cope with a low income if he had to do so.

"If I had to, I would," he said. "The reality is what we are trying to make certain is that the amount of money that taxpayers pay sees some value at the end of it in terms of people being supported.

"There’s been a huge amount of money which, in the course of the welfare system now, has absolutely been wasted.”

After his interview, more than 3,000 people signed an internet petition challenging the Work and Pensions Secretary to live on this amount.

Writing in today's Daily Telegraph, Mr Duncan Smith and George Osborne, the Chancellor, said the Coalition is “restoring the original values of the welfare state”.