Exeter charity say IDS has "no idea" about poverty

An Exeter charity has described claims by work and pensions minister Ian Duncan Smith that he could live on £53 a week as “ridiculous and insensitive”.
Matt Bell, chief executive of Exeter Community Initiatives, a charity that runs projects to help people facing poverty and homelessness, was speaking following a meeting of organisers of the city’s soup kitchens.
“I think it is incredibly insensitive for a man like Ian Duncan Smith to claim he knows what it feels like to live in poverty. It’s ridiculous,” he said. “I don’t think he knows what real poverty is.”
Yesterday a petition of almost half a million signatures was delivered to Mr Duncan Smith’s office, the Department for Work and Pensions, calling for him to try and live for a year on a minimal income.
Mr Bell also said: “Technically he might be able to live on £53 a week but that is not the same as living in the knowledge that you may have to do that for years.
“It ignores the fact that if you are living right on the edge you just need one unexpected event and it can result in a downward spiral that may cause homelessness.”
The Exeter Soup Kitchen Collaboration is largely supported by a network of volunteers whoensure that people living rough are able to get a meal.
They are holding a special event at St Stephen’s Church on Saturday, April 20, from 10am to 3pm to highlight the growing problem of homelessness in Exeter, recruit volunteers and alert people to the range of organisations offering help.
Last week Mr Duncan Smith dismissed the online petition about him as a “stunt”. He told a local London newspaper that he knew what it felt like to be poor. “I have been unemployed twice in my life so I have already done this. I know what it is like to live on the breadline, “he said.
The petition was launched by musician and part-time shop worker Dominic Aversano on the campaigning website www.change.org after hearing a market trader say on Radio 4’s Today Programme he would be left with £53 a week after his housing benefit was cut.