Statistics watchdog challenges Badenoch over welfare claim after Full Fact intervention
The interim chair of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), Penny Young, has written to the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, about a claim in the Conservatives’ Alternative King’s Speech that “for the first time ever, the total welfare bill is now higher than total receipts from income tax”.
As we said in our fact check on the subject in May, this isn’t true. Welfare payments have been higher than income tax receipts for many years, and the position is expected to reverse this year.
The UKSA also said it was worried that the Conservatives were giving the impression that “welfare” was mainly about sickness and out-of-work benefits, when “approximately 55% of social security expenditure is spent on pensioners”.
“We are concerned that the inaccuracy of the ‘first time ever’ element of the claim,” Ms Young’s letter said, “combined with the absence of this contextual explanation, could lead to misunderstanding among members of the public about welfare spending.”
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The UKSA took up the case after Full Fact wrote to it sharing our fact check. The claim has been repeated by several other Conservative MPs, and by the Reform MP Robert Jenrick.
We approached the Conservatives for comment.