Lies, damened lies and the Daily Express

TODAY’S front-page lead on the Daily Express – LABOUR’S £186BN BENEFITS MADNESS – revealed that in 2009/10 spending on benefits would amount to a quarter of all State spending.

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The “madness” to which the Express refers is, presumably, their belief that the £186 billion, or the vast majority of it, is being squandered: given out to ‘undeserving’ recipients or fraudulently claimed.

When analysed, however, the figures in the Centre for Policy Studies report reveal a somewhat different picture.

Of the projected £186.4 billion overall spend on benefits, only £21.68 billion (11.6 per cent) is forecast to be spent on Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance – 2.9 per cent of total Government spending.

By contrast, £67.2 billion is set to be spent on Pensions, plus a further £1.38 billion on Pension Credits, amounting to 37 per cent of benefits spending and nearly one tenth of all Government spending.

Only last year the Express were headlining calls for a 45 per cent hike in the State Pension, which, if carried through, would have lead to a total spend on pensions of almost £99 billion – 45.62 per cent of spending on benefits and 12.76 per cent of total Government spending, which would have had to rise four per cent.



Other principal areas of benefit spending include Housing Benefit (£19.63 billion; 10.53 per cent of spending on benefits, 2.64 per cent of overall spending), Child Tax Credits (£15.68bn; 8.41%, 2.11%), Child Benefit (£11.8bn; 6.33%, 1.59%) and Disability Allowances (£6.48bn; 3.48%, 0.87%).

An additional £30 billion is paid out in minor benefits – 16 per cent of benefits spending and four per cent overall – with fraud and overpayments costing at least £2.5 billion a year, according to the report.

Sources:-
• Benefit Simplification (Centre for Policy Studies)
• 2009 Budget Red Book (HM Treasury)
• Benefit Expenditure Tables, Medium Term Forecast, June 2009 (Department for Work and Pensions)