UK Parliament home

This petition was submitted during the 2010 to 2015 Parliament

View other petitions from this Parliament

Closed We the people challenge Ian Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week for one year.

Closed on

Mr Duncan Smith, insisted he could live on £53 a week - the amount given to a benefits claimant interviewed on the radio.

"If I had to, I would," he said. "The reality is what we are trying to make certain is that the amount of money that taxpayers pay sees some value at the end of it in terms of people being supported.

"There’s been a huge amount of money which, in the course of the welfare system now, has absolutely been wasted.”

Writing in today's Daily Telegraph, Mr Duncan Smith and George Osborne, the Chancellor, said the Coalition is “restoring the original values of the welfare state”.

He has stated, in the public domain, that he could do it. Let us see him do it.

994 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Petition progress

View all updates for this petition, with the most recent first.

  • Petition closed

  • Petition published

    This petition can now be signed.

    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 2 April 2014.