How welfare works
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2010
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tim Harford and the More or Less team examine more numbers in the news. This week: Claiming benefits has been described by the Chancellor as - for some - a "lifestyle choice". What does the evidence tell us about how incentives work in the welfare system?; The numbers of some of Britain's best-loved birds are declining. Fast. Many think cats are to blame. Are they right?; Why the Prime Minister's salary has become a convenient unit of measurement; And we bring you the results of our mathematical attempt to level the playing field at this year's Great North Run half marathon.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this week's more or less podcast. |
| 0:39.0 | Here's Tim Harford. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less if the SAS stood for the Statistical Analysis |
| 0:46.6 | Service I'd be Andy McNabb. This week we look at how to cut the welfare |
| 0:51.9 | bill. Is it really a matter of rooting out |
| 0:54.0 | lifestyle benefit claimants? We unveil a brand new system for measuring salaries. |
| 0:58.5 | Bird numbers are down. Are cats to blame and why is the question so controversial? |
| 1:04.6 | And of course, we have to find out who won our half marathon race between the sexes and |
| 1:10.2 | the generations. |
| 1:11.5 | Old man David Lewis or young wh whippersnapper Lucy Proctor. |
| 1:15.0 | We're going to savour the atmosphere and we're going to just do our best and you're going to come second. |
| 1:21.0 | But first, let's take a look at the ongoing political debate about the welfare |
| 1:26.2 | budget. The Chancellor George Osbourne recently said that while he'd |
| 1:29.7 | continue to protect and support deserving benefit claimants, he warned that people who claim benefits as a lifestyle choice would have to stop because the money would no longer be there. |
| 1:40.0 | Mr Osborne is expected to announce cuts of 4 billion pounds from the welfare bill |
| 1:44.6 | to go with the 11 billion pound reduction he announced in his emergency budget in June. |
... |
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