Adam Michael Edwards

Andrew Neil on #bbcqt: "The big problem we face is 6.7 million adults of working age who aren't working and are living on out-of-work benefits. 6.7 million. No country can prosper with that number of people able to work who are not working." The first half is broadly right. DWP figures show 6.7 million people in Great Britain claimed some combination of out-of-work benefits in March 2026. However, the second half is misinformation because it misdescribes that statistic. DWP's out-of-work benefits category deliberately includes people the state has assessed as unable to work, or does not currently expect to work. DWP's own breakdown shows that 4.6 million of the 6.7 million, around 68%, have no work requirements at all. DWP explains that this is generally because they are too sick to work or are the main carer for a very young child. That group includes 2.8 million Universal Credit claimants on the health route and 390,000 on Employment and Support Allowance and older incapacity benefits. Only 2.2 million, about a third, are expected to take any steps towards work, and 590,000 of those are themselves on the health route. Treating the whole 6.7 million as available labour turns a count of claimants into a count of idle workers, which the data simply does not support. The official labour market figures tell a very different story. The ONS puts unemployment, meaning people actively looking for and available for work, at 1.78 million for May to July 2026. The Learning and Work Institute estimates that 3.9 million people are out of work but say they want a job, and that there are 5.5 of them for every vacancy. There is a serious debate to be had about rising sickness claims and appropriate support. It is not helped by presenting people the state itself has judged unable to work, or not required to, as if they were simply choosing not to. Nobody challenged Neil. Nobody corrected the misinformation. Neil got a round of applause. Someone could have told Fiona Bruce the facts in less than a minute. This is just one example which helps explain why many people understandably treat @bbcquestiontime as a joke. Sources: DWP Benefit Combinations, March 2026; ONS/House of Commons Library, September 2026; Learning and Work Institute, September 2026.