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31 December 2012

Quote of the day: Iain Duncan Smith condemns tax credits

In the Telegraph, the Work and Pensions secretary attacks Labour's welfare record.

By Helen Lewis

Writing in today’s Telegraph – and underneath a mildly terrifying photograph – Iain Duncan Smith claims that the Tories have “brought fairness back to welfare”.

This Government is on the side of hard-working taxpayers, the people across the country working in the private and public sectors who have seen their pay frozen or cut, as businesses have struggled to keep them in work. And all the while these people have watched those on tax credits or benefits see their income rise, outstripping their earnings.

Labour called the comments a “cheap political attack” and referenced an unnamed Cabinet minister, who the Mail on Sunday reported as telling friends that the planned universal credit system championed by Duncan Smith was a “disaster waiting to happen”. “The information technology for the new system is nowhere near ready,” the minister reportedly added.

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