read a statistic today I was shocked by...

[Eve]

but it was in the DM whilst I was having a coffee during a sneaky afternoon shop without DH or DSs...

..so I don't really believe it, can any of you clever people find out??

....it said 1/4 of people of working age , weren't working but were on benefits....

quote was in a political context to say 1 of the key focus areas had to be getting people into work as a key way of assisting the economy to recover.

I can't help you there, but I'm suspicious of most quoted figures, especially deliberatly inflammatory ones like this. You can make statistics say whatever you like.

deliberately

I heard this figure being bandied about on Question Time last week. No idea where it comes from though

Well ,was there a reference or not?

Whatever your politics, it is blindingly obvious that too many peopel are propped up by the state with too few contributing to the enormous cost of it all.

it was in the dm - of course its wrong. otherwise your looking at 25% unemployment which I'm not aware of.

Knowing them they've made it up using people on state pension.

God knows the dm probably objects to the elderly not working too.

found it .. on govt statistics website..

The employment rate for the three months to January 2010 was 72.2 per cent

... but not the entire story as quoted in DM..

unemployemnt is 2.45 million people, which is not the 1/4 DM were quoting.

The inactivity rate for the three months to January 2010 was 21.5 per cent. This increase in inactivity was largely driven by the number of students not in the labour market which has increased by 98,000 on the quarter to reach 2.31 million, the highest since comparable records began in 1993.

so not all these are on benefits or unable to work..

It's referring to the number of people who are 'economically inactive' - for example, students, SAH parents, carers and so on. That accounts for 21.5% of all working age people - Government statistics link. Of course it doesn't mean they're all on benefits, but it is a high figure and it has increased.

I think it's economically inactive, rather tha 'on benefits'.

Oh x post with everyone. God knows why that took so long to type...

Misleading turdspurt expelled into Daily Mail.

Firmly in the "Dog bites man", non-news category...