We check facts about the UK economy. This includes money issues like prices, taxes, jobs, people out of work, and housing. We also look at how these things are different in each part of the UK.
Immigration
A post circulating on social media falsely claims that there are 1.6 million asylum seekers receiving “long term benefits”. Read
Economy, Business & Finance
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed that the state pension ‘will increase by more than any loss of the Winter Fuel Payment’. Read
Economy, Business & Finance
Rishi Sunak claimed Labour has ‘scrapped’ cost of living support for pensioners, and the Winter Fuel Payment. We've had a look at what’s happened to various pensioner cost of living support measures. Read
Economy, Business & Finance
Labour pledged to keep energy bills frozen in response to rising prices in 2022. It did not make any such promise in its recent election manifesto. Read
Economy, Business & Finance
The Times claimed rail staff other than drivers earn an average of £49,000. Recent ONS data shows it’s closer to £39,500. Read
A post on Threads claims 9.4 million people in Britain are unemployed, but technically this is the number in the UK who are ‘economically inactive’, not the number who are actively looking for work. Read
Health
Contrary to claims in the Telegraph, benefits claims for under-18s with autism and ADHD have not increased by 200,000 since Covid. Read
Economy, Business & Finance
The chancellor Rachel Reeves said public finances are facing a shortfall of £21.9 billion this year alone. Read
Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said in the House of Commons that inflation was over 10% last autumn, but seems to have got the year wrong. Read
Economy, Business & Finance
Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski’s claim that the cap “kept 1.8 million children in poverty last year” is not correct. Read
Fact checking claims made by politicians, public figures and viral online content can give you the full picture backed by the evidence.
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