Halibut Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 According to this piece in the Independent, the British public are wrong about nearly everything. Sadly, this comes as no surprise to me as a regular contributor to the Forum, where some seem to parade their ignorance as a matter of pride. Examples include - The public believe that £24 out of every £100 paid out in benefits is claimed fraudulently. It's actually 70 pence. Teen pregnancy - the public think 15% of 16 year olds get pregnant every year - the real figure is around 0.6%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 and I bet if you ask them all how they base their assumptions you'll get a majority answer of 'The Media' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeMaquis Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 Examples include - The public believe that £24 out of every £100 paid out in benefits is claimed fraudulently. It's actually 70 pence. Teen pregnancy - the public think 15% of 16 year olds get pregnant every year - the real figure is around 0.6%. To be fair people on here only think that the rates of benefit fraud and teenage pregnancies you quote apply to Muslims. That's because some people are a lot more tolerant and open-minded than you'd think. Honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 The Independent is part of "the Media" is it not? I don't think official government figures are particularly trustworthy tbh. I'll believe my own experiences and judgment, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I think this study is similar to one published about 2 or 3 months ago which showed that those who back government policy on social security are the most ignorant about it. But once people are given the correct information, support for government policy on security falls away:http://www.tuc.org.uk/social/tuc-21796-f0.cfm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamSmith Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 According to this piece in the Independent, the British public are wrong about nearly everything. Sadly, this comes as no surprise to me as a regular contributor to the Forum, where some seem to parade their ignorance as a matter of pride. Examples include - The public believe that £24 out of every £100 paid out in benefits is claimed fraudulently. It's actually 70 pence. Teen pregnancy - the public think 15% of 16 year olds get pregnant every year - the real figure is around 0.6%. probably correct if you take for the country as a whole? BUT narrow it down to most council estates, towns and cities and apply the maths there and you will find that the percentage figures are far in excess of this report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmaximus Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 According to this piece in the Independent, the British public are wrong about nearly everything. Sadly, this comes as no surprise to me as a regular contributor to the Forum, where some seem to parade their ignorance as a matter of pride. Examples include - The public believe that £24 out of every £100 paid out in benefits is claimed fraudulently. It's actually 70 pence. Teen pregnancy - the public think 15% of 16 year olds get pregnant every year - the real figure is around 0.6%. How do they know what percentage is claimed fraudulently? no one can know, they can only guess. Abortions are confidential so they also can't know how many 16 year olds get pregnant every year. So in both examples they are just guessing and could be just as wrong as everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I think this study is similar to one published about 2 or 3 months ago which showed that those who back government policy on social security are the most ignorant about it. But once people are given the correct information, support for government policy on security falls away:http://www.tuc.org.uk/social/tuc-21796-f0.cfm Is the TUC really a trustworth source? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altus Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 probably correct if you take for the country as a whole? BUT narrow it down to most council estates, towns and cities and apply the maths there and you will find that the percentage figures are far in excess of this report That just proves that most people don't realise that their own limited perspective doesn't apply to everyone. ---------- Post added 10-07-2013 at 18:12 ---------- Is the TUC really a trustworth source? Bit of a knee jerk reaction. They commissioned YouGov to conduct the poll and have the results available for download from the page Mister M linked to. So you can see the methodology used and the questions asked if you wish. If you think there are faults with the poll having looked at those results I'm sure you'll enlighten us as to which bits of it are at fault. You could even contact YouGov if you have any questions - there are contact details in the spreadsheet. ---------- Post added 10-07-2013 at 18:15 ---------- How do they know what percentage is claimed fraudulently? no one can know, they can only guess. Abortions are confidential so they also can't know how many 16 year olds get pregnant every year. So in both examples they are just guessing and could be just as wrong as everyone else. Confidential doesn't mean they can't keep a counts of how many abortions are carried out by the ages of the women who have them. So no need to guess in that case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikes10 Posted July 10, 2013 Share Posted July 10, 2013 I lot depends on how the questions were phrased for example What percentage of benefits do you think is fraudulently claimed? Do you think £24.00 of every £100 is fraudulently claimed? and interestingly the estimate of £0.70 is just that an estimate. Because know-body knows how to calculate it. As for pensions and JSA. Does the quoted pension cost just mean the basic state pension? or does it mean all public sector pensions including the basic state pension? I reckon if you asked the great British public how much a loaf of bread costs you would get a range of answers starting at £0.50 to £1.49. And they all would be right! because that's the price range in Morrisons supermarket. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-public-wrong-about-nearly-everything-survey-shows-8697821.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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