No evidence that benefit cap is driving people into work

by **Ali** Sat Apr 13, 2013 9:56 pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/13/iain-duncan-smith-benefit-cap-evidence

Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and a former chief economist at the DWP, said there was "no evidence at all" that the cap had affected people's behaviour.

"The actual analysis published by the Department for Work and Pensions makes it quite clear that they do not attempt to analyse any impact of behavioural change and that there is as yet no evidence one way or the other that there is behavioural change," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"It may be that the benefit cap has indeed had the effect that Iain Duncan Smith would like it to have. That is perfectly possible but without doing the analysis – and it has not been done – you simply cannot say that and you shouldn't say it."

Seems IDS has been making claims without the evidence to back it up. Why doesn't that surprise me?