He said; "This picture is set against a backdrop of 13 years of continuously increasing expenditure, which has outstripped inflation...Worse than the growing expense though, is the fact that the money is not even making the impact we want it to...A system that was originally designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate.

[7] Duncan Smith led the government's legislation in the House of Commons in January 2013 to cap most benefit increases at 1%, a real terms cut.

General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) Mark Serwotka commented: "It is distasteful in the extreme and grossly offensive that the DWP would even consider talking about celebrating cutting people's benefits.

[11] The Department for Work and Pensions had said that 1 million people would be placed on the new Universal Credit benefits system by April 2014, yet by October 2014 only 15,000 were assigned to UC.

[13] In June 2011, Duncan Smith announced earlier welfare-to-work programs would be replaced with a single Work Programme, which included incentives for private sector service providers to help the unemployed find long term employment.

[14] Further developments included the requirement for some long term recipients of Job Seekers Allowance to undertake unpaid full-time work placements with private companies.

After the "workfare" element of this programmed was successfully challenged in the courts, Duncan Smith sought to re-establish the legality of the scheme through emergency and retrospective legislation.

[16] In April 2013, Duncan Smith called for wealthier people to voluntarily return winter fuel payments, given to all pensioners regardless of wealth, to help reduce the strain on public finances.

[19][20] Dilnot also stated, following an earlier complaint about the handling of statistics by Duncan Smith's department, he had previously been told, "that senior DWP officials had reiterated to their staff the seriousness of their obligations under the Code of Practice and that departmental procedures would be reviewed".

"[22] This led Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and former chief economist at the Cabinet Office, to accuse the Conservative Party of going beyond spin and the normal political practice of cherry picking of figures to the act of actually "making things up" with respect to the impact of government policy on employment and other matters.

From this United Nations appointed day onwards, people with disabilities and illnesses ranging from cancer to paralysis to mental health would be forced by the UK government to work for free or else they could risk being stripped of up to 70% of their welfare benefits.

[10] In June 2015, a judge ruled that there had been a "breach of duty on the part of the secretary of state to act without unreasonable delay in determination of the claimant's claims for PIP," the replacement for Disability Living Allowance.

[31] At his party's conference in October 2015, Duncan Smith said in a speech about the sick and disabled "we won't lift you out of poverty by simply transferring taxpayers' money to you.

"[32] In the September 2012 Cabinet reshuffle, Duncan Smith was offered the job as Secretary of State for Justice replacing Kenneth Clarke, but declined, and remained in his post at the DWP.

[35] He broadened this position, in a following interview on The Andrew Marr Show, launching an attack on the "government's austerity programme for balancing the books on the backs of the poor and vulnerable", describing this as divisive and "deeply unfair", and adding: "It is in danger of drifting in a direction that divides society rather than unites it.