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Tax Dodgers and Benefits Cheats

Does the government have lots of people chasing the relatively small amounts lost to benefits cheats, while massive amounts of tax evasion are barely investigated?

With Take That singer Gary Barlow in hot water over tax avoidance, Tim Harford looks at the numbers to see if there's any truth in the post that's been doing the rounds on social media suggesting HMRC employs only 300 people to chase 拢70bn of tax evasion, while the DWP employs 3250 people to chase 拢1.2bn of benefits fraud?

Did the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty fall by half a few weeks ago?That's one interpretation of newly released figures for purchasing power parity around the world, but does it stack up? Should the World Bank be lowering its global poverty estimates?

Forget Conchita and the Polish milkmaids, the most exciting thing about Eurovision this year is that they've released more data than ever before! We crunch the numbers to find out what the results would have been if only the public had their say.

What are the chances of winning one of Willy Wonka's coveted 'Golden Tickets'? One More or Less listener's 9-year-old daughter wanted to know, so we sent Rob Eastaway to explain probability to her school class.

And Boris Johnson recently claimed there are 400,000 French people living in London. He also likes to say that he's the mayor of the 6th biggest French city on earth. But as we find out, the real numbers are rather less flattering to Boris's Gallic mayoral pretensions.

Available now

26 minutes

Last on

Sun 18 May 2014 20:00

Chapters

  • DWP vs HMRC

    How many people chase tax evasion at HMRC compared to benefits fraud at the DWP.

    Duration: 05:12

  • Poverty

    Does greater purchasing power in developing countries mean there are fewer poor people?

    Duration: 05:20

  • Charlie

    What are the chances of winning one of Willy Wonka's coveted 'Golden Tickets'?

    Duration: 05:27

  • Eurovision

    We find out what the results would have been if only the public had their say.

    Duration: 03:41

  • London 6th biggest French city?

    Boris Johnson recently claimed there are 400,000 French people living in London.

    Duration: 03:00

Broadcasts

  • Fri 16 May 2014 16:30
  • Sun 18 May 2014 20:00

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