One of the regular duties of a Work and Pensions minister is to defend his or her programme of reform against criticisms from all sides about how it is administered. At today’s Work and Pensions questions in the Commons, Mike Penning didn’t try all that hard, though, to defend Atos Healthcare and its contract to carry out the Work Capability Assessment. Instead, he described the situation as a ‘mess’ and blamed the last Labour government for the contract.
By contrast, Iain Duncan Smith was quizzed by Labour and Conservative MPs on one reform that needs no defending: the benefit cap. Instead of being urged to drop or make the cap less draconian, the Work and Pensions Secretary was asked by Andrew Turner, the Isle of Wight MP, whether he could lower the cap as it is currently £10,000 higher than the average wage of Turner's constituents.
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