Ian Duncan Smith - Tory Conference Speech

Duncan Smith Conference Sppech

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, told the Tory Conference in his speech that under Labour disability benefits treated the disabled as “passive victims” and that his reforms were designed to change this. Duncan Smith kicked off: 

"Let me start with sickness benefit.

This is Labour’s last great legacy.

Almost half of people on ESA [employment and support allowance] have been on the benefit for more than 2 years.

This is despite the majority of ESA claimants saying that they would like to work.

The ESA has Labour’s essential mistake at its heart – that people are passive victims.

Of course if you treat people as passive that’s what they’ll become.

It’s no wonder, when the system makes doctors ask a simplistic question: are you too sick to work at all?

If the answer is yes, they’re signed off work – perhaps for ever.

So we look to change the system – and the assumptions that underpin it.

Conservatives philosophy is rooted in human nature – not in Utopianism or in empty pity but in the yearning of people to make a better life for themselves and their children.

That’s why we don’t think of people not in work as victims to be sustained on government handouts. No, we want to help them live lives independent of the state".

In his speech Iain Duncan Smith claimed tax credits were a 'bribe' as he launched a vicious attack on the 'tears' of 'ranting and screaming' anti-cuts protesters.

Duncan Smith congratulated himself for scrapping the 'nonsense' of Labour's poverty target and said: "Being poor isn't just because the Government doesn't give you enough money".

And he said parents should choose not to have offspring if they can't afford them. His comments came despite research that has left his claims in tatters -showing a minimum-wage family will be £2,000 worse off from tax credit cuts even with the new 'national living wage'. 

ABC Comment - Duncan Smith does not seem to realialize just how out of touch his views are becoming, MPs across the party spectrum feel that cutting Tax Credits without wages having risen will be be a disaster. Workers have to get to work, and there are many people who are going to be struggling to do that.