Give us your factcheck suggestions
Full Fact is eager to involve as many of our readers as possible in the fact-checking process. However we recognise that this can be a time-consuming process. If there is a claim you would like us to check on your behalf, please do give us your suggestions.Our focus is on the factual accuracy and authenticity of what is said by Britain's key political players so ensure that your suggestions fall into our remit. Please include a specific claim, and where possible refer to the original source where it was made; it helps us to respond to your request more quickly.We cannot promise to check everything people suggest because we have to make sure we maintain political balance and because there may be other things we need to work on.
Previous suggestions
Janet ClarksonMany newspapers are foaming at the mouth regarding the government back to work scheme. I would like an investigation into how many unpaid interns are currently "employed" by these newspapers themselves. |
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Trevor A SmithThe Government state that the "new" NHS will cut bureaucracy Is that statement true? |
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Julian GravattYou gave the DFE 5 out of 5 for "Has there been a 40-fold increase in the number of vocational qualifications" but I think this is wrong because the statistic excludes General National Vocational Qualifications which were phased out in the early 2000s and which schools replaced with vocational qualifications. It is splitting hairs to say that GNVQs were that different from vocational qualifications. It is difficult now to find information on GNVQs but Table 11 of this DFE publication (http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000442/sfr02-2004v4.pdf) shows that about 80,000 pupils aged 15 did various sorts of GNVQs. This suggests a 6 fold increase from 80,000 to 480,000 but even this overstates the rise because GNVQs were larger qualifications than some of the courses taken by schools in recent years in terms of the amount of the timetable required to teach them. In my view, the "40 fold increase" figure quoted by Alison Wolf and used at the front of the DFE Schools White Paper in autumn 2010 is a sign of the short-term memory in DFE. I'll take this up directly with both Professor Wolf and the DFE but I think it deserves a closer look. |
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Liz ClayChris Grayling claims in the telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9091105/Critics-of-Government-work-ex...) that govt work experience is 'an entirely voluntary scheme' and that 'no one is obliged to take part'. This contradicts many peoples' claims that they have been forced to do work experience or lose their benefits. It is also contradicted by a commenter who quotes - 'Work Experience for JSA Claimants: from the DWP Work Programme Provider Guidance (http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wp-pg-chapter-3.pdf) Is Grayling's statement an outright lie? |
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Sue Webb via FacebookPlease could Full Fact investigate whether, with a 0.5% fraud rate (DWP figures), Disability Living Allowance is being 'over paid' to the large number of people that Maria Miller MP claims, in this article in Disability Now? http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/latest-news2/news-focus/miller-holds-fir... |
Ms Miller says at that link “DLA has been poorly managed over the last ten years. We’ve got a situation where there is over £600 million going out in over-payments and equally as worrying, around £190 million in under-payments, so we can’t be convinced that the money that is there is getting to people who need it most." Over-payments does not just include fraud, it also includes error – both by claimants and by the government. We've looked at fraud and error claims quite a few times. See http://fullfact.org/factchecks/disability_living_allowance_fraud_error-3250 for a recent example, or http://fullfact.org/search/node/fraud%20and%20error to search our site. However, as that article shows the latest available figures seems to show total overpayment of £220m for DLA, including £60m fraud, £70m customer error and £90m official error. However, we'd need to check with the Department to find out what figures Ms Miller is referring to and to ensure those we quote are the latest available, although it's worth saying they are still the latest available on the DWP website http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd2/index.php?page=fraud_error. |
@jespertutu on twitterMargot James on BBC Question Time 'Prescott fails to acknowledge that every Labour gov.. throughout history has increased unemployment' is this true? |