A Conservative MP has made a formal complaint to the BBC after it emerged that a market trader who challenged Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week is receiving three times that amount himself.
David Bennett working on his market stall and (right) the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith Photo: North News & Pictures/Eddie Mulholland
11:46AM BST 03 Apr 2013
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David Bennett, 51, told the BBC that he was struggling after his housing
benefit was cut and challenged Mr Duncan Smith to survive on £53 a week.
Mr Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has faced heavy criticism
after he told BBC Radio 4 that he could live on the sum “if I had to”.
More than 360,000 have now signed an online petition challenging Mr Duncan
Smith to prove that he can live on £53 a week.
However, it has now been disclosed that Mr Bennett, who was back on his market
stall selling household goods on Tuesday, receives £232 a month in housing
benefit and £200 a month in working tax credit, triple the amount of money
he quoted in the challenge to Mr Duncan Smith.
His average weekly income, including market stall earnings, is in fact £156 a
week.
