Can you get £71,000 on benefits?
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
Is it true that someone needs to earn £71,000 before they receive more money than a family on benefits?
Did Canadian prime minister Mark Carney get the GDP of Canada and the Nordic countries wrong?
Are 1990s pop icons Right Said Fred right about what they said about church attacks?
Is a sauna really ten times as hot as Wales in the winter?
And Tim hits the science lab treadmill to find out if he can run a four-hour marathon.
If you’ve seen a number in the news you want the team on More or Less to have a look at, email moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Contributors: Gareth Morgan, benefits expert and author of the Benefits in the Future blog Joe Shalam, policy director of the Centre for Social Justice Professor Kelly Morrison, head of physics at Loughborough University Dr Danny Muniz, a senior lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the University of Hertfordshire
Credits: Presenter: Tim Harford Reporters: Nathan Gower, Lizzy McNeill and Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Gareth Jones and James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, |
| 0:27.9 | it's really all about The Traitors Uncloaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, |
| 0:33.4 | listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the last in this series of More or Less. |
| 0:39.3 | We've been on a journey together, but this is our final climactic word on the numbers in the news and in life. |
| 0:46.4 | And I'm Tim Harford. |
| 0:48.1 | Right, what topics are epic enough to suit the occasion? |
| 0:52.6 | Let me see. |
| 0:53.7 | Did a Canadian politician misspeak when |
| 0:55.9 | describing economic data? Are 1990s pop icons right said Fred right about what they said? Can I run |
| 1:03.9 | on a treadmill and a funny mask? Now I really want to scratch my nose. And is a sauna really ten times as hot as whales? |
| 1:13.6 | And in case you think we've all gone a bit silly, |
| 1:16.0 | 25% of those items are more serious than you might imagine. |
| 1:20.2 | But first, would you be better off working or claiming benefits? |
| 1:25.3 | That depends on how much your job pays, of course, |
| 1:28.2 | but there are lots of people who will tell you that it needs to pay a lot. |
| 1:32.5 | You'd need a 71,000-pound pre-tax household income |
| 1:35.8 | to be as well off as a couple with children on benefits. |
| 1:39.9 | Now it seems that somebody who goes to work has to earn 71,000 pounds in order to match the |
... |
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