Can you get £71,000 on benefits?

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:

Is it true that someone needs to earn £71,000 before they receive more money than a family on benefits?

Did Canadian prime minister Mark Carney get the GDP of Canada and the Nordic countries wrong?

Are 1990s pop icons Right Said Fred right about what they said about church attacks?

Is a sauna really ten times as hot as Wales in the winter?

And Tim hits the science lab treadmill to find out if he can run a four-hour marathon.

If you’ve seen a number in the news you want the team on More or Less to have a look at, email [email protected]

Contributors:

Gareth Morgan, benefits expert and author of the Benefits in the Future blog

Joe Shalam, policy director of the Centre for Social Justice

Professor Kelly Morrison, head of physics at Loughborough University

Dr Danny Muniz, a senior lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the University of Hertfordshire

Credits:

Presenter: Tim Harford

Reporters: Nathan Gower, Lizzy McNeill and Tom Colls

Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown

Sound mix: Gareth Jones and James Beard

Editor: Richard Vadon