Policy and analysis correspondent, BBC Verify.
https://www.benchu.co.uk/
Author of "Exile Economics: What Happens if Globalisation Fails", published May 2025
https://linktr.ee/exileeconomics
Ben Chu
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"Protection in an inter-connected world is best
achieved therefore through trust and widely followed global rules."
Must read from @davidheniguk.bsky.social 👇
You’ve probably heard of Henry – the High Earner, Not Rich Yet. But what about his nemesis, Richard – who Retired In a Comfortable House And Refuses to Downsize?
There are quite a lot of Richards out there. They’re the subject of my column for today’s Observer.
observer.co.uk/news/busines...
Iran has damaged 20 US military sites since the start of the war, satellite images and videos analysed by BBC Verify show, suggesting the attacks are more extensive than publicly acknowledged. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BTW Milburn also used this ratio in his interview with Laura Kuenssberg on the Sunday, before the report, was published and it made headlines...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
They clarified that this Youth Guarantee spending had not kicked in 2024/25 & that, when it does (presumably from 2025/26), the ratio between youth benefit spending and youth employment support will fall from 25:1 to 10:1.
As the source, the Milburn report refers to its analytical annex, which says this...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
But there's some further important context.
In December 2025 the Government announced a £820m Youth Guarantee, to be spent over three years (implying £273m/year)
I asked DWP how this related to the £300m figure for youth employment support...
questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...
EXCL: Andy Burnham’s first broadcast interview since confirming he’d join any potential Labour leadership contest
• is ‘sympathetic’ to reversing the gov’s NI rise for employers
• asked why he believes he’d be a better PM than Keir Starmer says ‘I’m not getting into that’
1/2 👇
But there are no cash figures provided in the annex in relation to this claim, only ratios.
I contacted the DWP press office who said the figure used for benefit spending on young people in 2024/25 was £8.1bn versus £300m for employment support for this age group (giving the 3.7% figure)...
There's a striking statistic in the Milburn report on NEETs that:
"Overall, we estimate that in 2024/25 for every £1 that DWP spent on employment support for young people, around £25 was spent on benefits for young people".
Here's where it comes from...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
