Speeches by Yang.

“Mr Hughes, do you have any other responses to those questions?”

“My Committee colleagues are quite keen to know whether you think other countries have done a better job of recovering after the pandemic in capturing labour force data. Are there any other countries that we should be learning from in the UK?”

“How long in months or years do you think it might take before you are confident, or at least fairly confident, in that data?”

“Does the fact that the ONS is very confident make you more confident, or are you still not very confident in its data, as you were last November?”

“Professor Miles, you just said that people should have much less confidence in the employment stats than they used to, and when you last spoke to the Committee last November you mentioned that you were not very confident about the labour force survey data. By contrast, when we saw the ONS as a Committee the national st…”

“In response to that, does it make sense to have a kind of fiscal-first solution, in which you decide what percentage of GDP should be spent on these benefits and work from there? How should the fiscal calculation feed into the broader policy calculation?”

“I want to go back to the discussion with Ms McEvoy about the problem of rising claimant counts, expenditure, and disability and incapacity benefits, and to drill a bit more into what kind of a problem that is. Mr Johnson and Ms Curtice, you said that it is a problem. From one perspective, it is a fiscal problem. On the…”

“Does that mean that we should expect an update to those forecasts in the autumn outlook?”

“There is also the implication in a lot of media discourse that the increase in PIP caseloads is not matched by an underlying increase in disability and that, therefore, there is some gaming. Do you see that in the data that you have looked at?”

“So people will put more work into getting the right doctor’s assessments and so on. There is no claim from the OBR that that evidence is mistaken and that people will be driven to—”

“I want to continue with one of the themes that Ms McEvoy brought up. In the 2024 welfare report, and elsewhere in the OBR publications, you refer to the “financial incentive” to applying. There is a lot of stigma in the media right now about fraud—incorrect claimants gaming the system, as it were—and the term can be in…”

“In the play of events from 17 March to 19 March, was there any surprise on either side? Were you surprised by being given more measures to score? Was the Treasury surprised by what you have given it? Was there a level of miscommunication? Could you explain what was happening in those few days?”

“Do you plan to publish any analysis of welfare-related changes before the autumn? I note that in previous summers you have published papers describing the overall trends.”

“The Chancellor has rightly championed economic stability, in stark contrast to the previous Government—indeed, in stark contrast to the previous five Chancellors. Yet, as she has said, the world is becoming more unstable, and that global instability feeds through to rapid changes in official projections, which can cons…”

“Is the reason that you have not yet done an impact assessment of potential cash ISA changes that you do not see them as live proposals, or is there another reason?”

“Based on the research that you have done in the past on consumer behaviour, as well as your previous comments, Mr Alder, about investment culture in the UK and the lack of retail investment culture compared to, for example, Hong Kong and other areas, what would the impact of changing the cash ISA arrangements be in ter…”

“My colleague, Ms Blake, will go on to discuss the advice guidance boundary review. Before we get to that, is it your overall view that, so long as consumers are given the appropriate guidance and access to good advice, investment behaviour will shift over the long run? Or do you also see that there are groups of low-in…”

“If you were to take every single consumer in the UK—although of course you do not have personal insight into their minds—do you think all those different groups across income spectrums and different demographics could be shifted to more risk-taking behaviour in their investments, with better education, better advice, b…”

“You are looking at consumers perhaps in their late 30s or 40s who have bought their first home. They are relatively well off in that they have those savings. Is that the kind of demographic you are looking at shifting? Can you paint a picture of who you are thinking about?”

“I very much agree with that sentiment. Young people are the future, and to ensure they get off to the best possible start in life, they need work that pays and enables them to live in stability, not concerned about paying the bills from day to day or month to month. Most young people nowadays have to do a mixture of wo…”