Can you get £71,000 on benefits? episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 28, 2026 · 28 MIN

Can you get £71,000 on benefits?

from More or Less · host BBC Radio 4

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 [email protected]: 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 HertfordshireCredits: 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

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 28, 2026

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Can you get £71,000 on benefits?

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