Government apologises for getting 'fats' wrong
The Department of Health has been forced into an embarrassing apology after massively overestimating the number of obese people who claim disability benefits in the UK.
Link: Downing Street puts squeeze on ‘fat tax’
Earlier this week, health minister Lord Warner claimed that there were 900,000 Britons who were too overweight to work and subsequently claiming benefit.
This, the department claimed, cost the taxpayer more than £70m a week and £3.7bn every year.
However the DoH has been forced to backtrack after it emerged that it made a huge error with the official figures.
The correct number should have been 900 rather than 900,000, putting the weekly cost at a rather more modest £70,000 (equating to £3.7m annually).
The department blamed the mistake on an ‘administrative error’. It follows Downing Street’s forced denial of plans to introduce a ‘fat’ tax, after a document was leaked to the press.