BBC journalist Amol Rajan apologised to Radio 4 listeners this morning after appearing to suggest benefits claimants are ‘scroungers’.
Mr Rajan, who has been a presenter on the Today programme since 2021, told listeners he wanted to ‘clarify’ the comment made during an interview with former Labour minister Lord David Blunkett.
During a discussion about yesterday’s Budget, Mr Rajan said: ‘According to the child poverty action group there are over 4 million kids in this country in poverty, more than 70 per cent of those are actually in families where people work.
‘It’s not a question of scroungers on welfare, it’s actually working families.’
He had been asking Lord Blunkett about the decision by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Addressing Radio 4 listeners several minutes later, Mr Rajan said: ‘I just want to clarify something, a few moments ago in my interview with Lord Blunkett I used the word scroungers.
‘To be clear I absolutely wasn’t describing people on welfare as scroungers myself, I was making the point that in families where kids are in poverty, you can’t really characterise such families as scroungers, were people to do so, because as I was saying over 70 per cent of the children in poverty are in families where people do work.
‘Sorry if that was unclear, I’d certainly never myself describe people who take social security or benefits or welfare or whatever you want to call it as scroungers, that’s not the kind of language I would use.’
Mr Rajan, who has been a presenter on the Today programme since 2021, told listeners he wanted to ‘clarify’ a comment in which he appeared to refer to some people on benefits as ‘scroungers’
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that Ms Reeves’ decision to ease the limit on how many children parents are given money for would cost £3billion a year by 2029-30
The apology came after listeners took to social media in outrage over his initial comment.
One said: ‘BBC Radio 4 Today can you explain to me why your script editor or Amol Rajan himself decided to use the phrase “scroungers on welfare”?
‘Is this the impartial BBC we’ve heard so much about?’
A second added: ‘Regretful that in his clarification of what he meant by using degrading language about families in poverty on BBC Radio 4 Today that Amol Rajan restated the original characterisation of people on social welfare by saying that 70 per cent work, so then the rest are scroungers?? Not good.’
Rachel Reeves announced that she would scrap the cap in yesterday’s Budget, enabling families to claim additional child benefits for their children.
She said the move, which the fiscal watchdog predicted would cost taxpayers £3billion a year by 2030, would lift 450,000 children out of poverty.
Some 560,000 families’ benefits will rise by an average of £5,310 by 2029-30 due to the change, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has said.
Ms Reeves said the Tories introduced the cap in 2017 to deter poorer families from having more children, telling the Commons: ‘They said they were punishing parents’ choices, but it is the kids who have paid the price.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was part of a ‘Budget for Benefits Street’, with workers paying for handouts.
‘This Budget increases benefits for 560,000 families by an average of £5,000. They are hiking taxes on workers, pensioners and savers to pay for handouts to keep their backbenchers quiet,’ she said.
Mrs Badenoch was heckled by Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool), who shouted the Government was ‘taking children out of poverty’.
The Chancellor described the two-child cap as a ‘policy that pushes kids into poverty more than any other’, adding that ‘it has failed’ on the terms it was brought in on, and also announced an end to the so-called ‘rape clause’.
This was an exemption to the two-child cap that forced women who had been raped to prove their child was born as a result of ‘non-consensual conception’.
‘I understand that many families are finding times hard, and that many have had to make difficult choices when it comes to having kids,’ Ms Reeves told MPs.
‘And there are many reasons why people choose to have children and then find themselves in difficult times – the death of a partner, separation, ill health, a lost job. I don’t believe children should bear the brunt of that.
‘And neither can I in good conscience leave in place the vile policy known as the “rape clause”, requiring women to prove if their children have been conceived non-consensually to receive support.
‘I’m proud to be Britain’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer. I take the responsibilities that come with that seriously. I will not tolerate the grotesque indignity to women of the “rape clause” any longer.
‘It is dehumanising. It is cruel, and I will remove it from the statute book.’
The scrapping of the cap was leaked alongside most of the measures in the Budget after the OBR published its analysis of the Chancellor’s policies early in error.
Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, has since apologised.
Speaking to Mr Rajan on the Today programme this morning, he said: ‘I’ve written to the Chancellor and the chair of the Treasury Select Committee to apologise for inadvertently allowing the early accessing to our economic and fiscal outlet yesterday for which I take full responsibility on behalf of the OBR.
‘I regret the deep disruption that it caused to the Chancellor’s statement and Parliamentary proceedings.
‘We’ve initiated an investigation into what happened. It will be overseen by the chair of our oversight board and include expert input from Professor Ciaran Martin, former head of the National Cyber Security Centre.
‘It will report to the Treasury and the Treasury Committee of Parliament and identify the actions we need to take to ensure it never happens again.
‘I feel personally mortified by what happened.
‘The OBR prides itself on our professionalism. We let people down yesterday and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
