How jolly decent of David Cameron to stand by Culture Secretary Maria Miller and how emblematic of his government's consistently compassionate attitude to people who claim state benefits to which they are not entitled.

Claimants bemused by paperwork or under stress because of poverty may draw comfort from the decision of the Standards Committee, composed of MPs, to overrule the less charitable response of Standards Commissioner Kathryn Hudson.

Perhaps the government will allow a committee of claimants to sit in future judgement on Department
of Work and Pensions officers' decisions to sanction benefits.

The committee could reduce payback orders and
advise fellow sufferers to issue a cursory 32-second apology - "Erm, sorry about that" - and that would be that.

Or as the Prime Minister's latest catchphrase has it, "I think people should leave it at that."

Well, he would, wouldn't he? But he knows that most people see MPs at it again, helping themselves to the public purse while lecturing everyone else to tighten our belts.

Miller appears most upset at having been referred to the Standards Commissioner by Labour MP John Mann, but he acted correctly.

MPs are supposed to defend the public purse and, if he saw someone filling their boots without due cause, he was honour bound to report it.Does she think that MPs should be bound together in a parody of freemasonry? This isn't the Metropolitan Police.

Most voters will believe that Standards Committee members have, like Cameron, shown a far more understanding attitude to Miller, one of their own, than poorer people outside the Westminster village might expect to encounter.

As if to prove the point, former Labour minister Michael Meacher raised the issue yesterday of trigger-happy Jobcentre Plus staff operating a "sanctions first, think later" approach to claimants.

This can only result from a directive from above in response to political pressure from government to slash spending on benefits and, just as crucially, to reduce the official jobless tally.

Did the government ministers and backbenchers who backed Miller so ostentatiously in Parliament follow this by opening their hearts to the thousands of vulnerable citizens denied basic benefits by unfeeling officialdom?

Yeah, right. The milk of human kindness flows but not so freely as to reach those who actually need it.

MPs have made no secret of their hostility to Standards Commissioner Kathryn Hudson and it's easy to see why, given that she takes a more rigorous attitude than the Standards Committee.

However, even the committee had to conclude that the minister neglected to co-operate fully with Hudson, failing to provide full information, and that she had twice extended the mortgage on her home without consulting the House, in contravention of Green Book advice.

It beggars belief that the committee should have overruled the commissioner's finding that Miller had overclaimed £45,000 and should repay that sum.

It shouldn't pose too much of a burden since she made a £1 million profit when she sold her house.

Justice and past practice demand that she resigns as Culture Secretary and, failing that, the Prime Minister should sack her.

Neither will do so, to the sharp disappointment of Remploy workers thrown on the scrapheap and disabled people deprived of Independent Living Fund grants when she was equalities minister.

The in crowd have looked after their people again and, as Cameron tells them constantly, "we're all in this together."