Cap protests target politicians

Around 200 people have gathered outside the home of Baron David Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform, to protest against the so-called bedroom tax and benefits cap.

People played drums and wrote out postcards to send to Lord Freud as they sat outside his home in Highgate, North London, estimated to be worth £1.9 million.

Protesters sat in the street on beds and duvets and some held up signs that read, "Who wants to evict a millionaire?"

The UK Uncut protest group said today's protests against the 'bedroom tax' and other benefit cuts had been successfully completed:

• Read: IDS 'misrepresenting benefit cap statistics'

Protest group UK Uncut claimed that hundreds of people attended demonstrations over the bedroom tax and benefits cap at Lord Freud’s home and 20 disabled activists are staging a protest at Iain Duncan Smith’s country home in Buckinghamshire.

The disabled activists, from Disabled People Against the Cuts, have presented Iain Duncan Smith with an eviction notice at his home, while at Lord Freud’s house children were read a Freudian bedtime story, a removal van unloaded sofas and an eviction notice was served.

Hundreds of anti-cuts activists will launch a fresh campaign of civil disobedience today in protest at the Government's controversial welfare changes.

Direct action group UK Uncut said it will hold events in central London, Birmingham, Manchester and Chelmsford to bring the impact of the cuts home to "millionaire misery-makers".

The protests hope to highlight the 'bedroom tax', with protesters expected to take beds with them during the demonstrations.

The cap on benefits, being rolled out from this month, will also be attacked.

Read: '40,000 affected' by benefit cap

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said it had followed the correct procedures in publishing government statistics over the benefit cap, after a research institute accused Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith of misrepresenting information.

Read more: IDS 'misrepresenting benefit cap statistics'

The Work and Pensions Secretary was today accused of misrepresenting government statistics in order to claim his cap on benefits was driving people to find work.

The Department for Work and Pensions(DWP) released figures yesterday showing the number of people expected to be hit by the cap had fallen from 56,000 to 40,000. Iain Duncan Smith hailed the figures, saying the cap had provided a "strong incentive" for people to look for jobs.

However, Jonathan Portes, 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.

Mr Portes 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.

"This is, I am afraid, a consistent pattern of trying to draw out of the statistics things which they simply don't show."

Read more: What is the benefit cap?

The Government says 40,000 households will be affected by the new benefits cap, which is being trialled from Monday.

ITV News Reporter Sejal Karia has spoken to one family fearing for their future:

Figures out today reveal that 40,000 people in Scotland, England and Wales will be affected by the new benefit cap.

ITV News reporter Sejal Karia has spoken to Candice O'Halloran who fears that the money she will lose through the benefits cap will see her living back on the streets.

Candice said she has been looking for a job for years but has failed to find work, despite being happy to take anything, "I will clean toilets, I'll work behind a bar, I don't care."

She said: "I don't know what they want me to do."

Read more: What is the benefit cap?