Daily Express in 'headline is misleading arse' shocker!

It's depressingly familiar now. Daily Express headilne screams something shocking about immigration, but the article itself turns out to show the headline is exaggerated toss. This one says '5500 migrants claiming benefits', and the Ministry of Truth has the resons why this is not exactly kosher. A couple of highlights:

One finds that the actual breakdown of benefit claimants from Eastern Europe is…

35,448 receiving child benefit at up to £17.45 a week…

…which is, of course, a universal benefit paid to all families with children under the age of 16.

According to the most recent statistics from HM Revenue & Customs, 7.4 million families currently receive child benefit for a total of 13.2 million children, and as one suspects that the figure of 35,448 cited by the Express is the number of children for which child benefit is being claimed and not the number families making claims, this amounts to a staggering 0.26% of the total number of children for whom child benefit is paid.

And:

So a quick bit of maths shows that out of 510,000 migrants, less that 20,000 are receiving, or might receive work-related benefits, leaving 490,000 out there working in Britian’s economy, generating profits and paying taxes, give or take any that couldn’t find suitable work and have since gone elsewhere.

The whole thing's well worth a read, especially if you're interested in seeiing how politicians take an Orwellian approach to language. Go! Do it!