Picture copyright UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
Picture copyright
UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor
Boris Johnson has been rebuked by the unbiased statistics watchdog over claims he made final month about common credit score.
The prime minister instructed MPs the welfare change, which rolls six advantages into one cost, had already succeeded in getting 200,000 individuals into work.
However the UK Statistics Authority stated the quantity was solely an estimate for when the change is totally rolled out.
The much-delayed new system is now on account of go stay in September 2024.
The watchdog had been requested to research the 200,000 jobs determine by Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood.
Mr Johnson had used it to defend authorities welfare modifications throughout an change with Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister’s Questions.
In a letter to the prime minister, the watchdog’s chairman Sir David Norgrove confirmed the determine was an estimate, moderately than for “the impact to this point”.
The roles determine, estimated to be achieved by 2024/25, was made by the Division for Work and Pensions in its 2018 enterprise case for common credit score.
It has already been questioned by the Nationwide Audit Workplace, which concluded the division would “by no means be capable of measure” the impression on employment.
“It can not isolate the impact of common credit score from different financial components in growing employment,” the NAO concluded in a 2018 review.
This isn’t the primary time the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority has clashed with Mr Johnson over his use of statistics.
In 2017, Sir David criticised him for his claims through the EU referendum marketing campaign that Brexit would save the UK £350m every week.
He added that the determine, utilized by Mr Johnson while he was international secretary, constituted a “clear misuse of official statistics”.