Budget 2023: Childcare funding and other Jeremy Hunt claims checked

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been giving interviews to the media, pursuing Wednesday's Budget.

We've looked astatine immoderate of his claims.

Mr Hunt was quizzed connected BBC Breakfast astir payments for nurseries providing government-funded childcare.

Presenter Nina Warhurst said nurseries were complaining that the summation to £5.50 an hr to screen escaped childcare for three- and four-year-olds was not enough.

The chancellor replied: "What the assemblage asked for earlier the Budget was a 30% emergence and that's what we've delivered."

The 30% that helium was referring to was the summation successful backing for two-year-olds, which is going up from £6 to £8 an hour.

But what helium was asked astir was the backing for three- and four-year-olds, which is going up from £5.29 to £5.50 an hr - that's astir 4%, not 30%.

The chancellor was asked connected Radio 4's Today programme astir the Budget's interaction connected migration to the UK.

He said: "There are nary measures successful the Budget that… summation immigration."

But 1 of the measures it includes is adding 5 types of operation workers - including bricklayers, roofers, carpenters and plasterers - to the shortage concern list.

This database is for jobs for which it is easier to get a skilled idiosyncratic visa to travel to the UK.

Presumably the authorities is hoping to summation the fig of operation workers coming to the UK.

Budget documents accidental it is portion of measures "to assistance easiness contiguous labour proviso pressures".

The chancellor was asked wherefore helium had accrued the magnitude radical are allowed to enactment into their pensions tax-free.

Mr Hunt explained to BBC Breakfast: "The Royal College of Surgeons accidental that 69% of their members person reduced their hours due to the fact that of the mode the pension strategy works."

What the Royal College of Surgeons actually said was that 69% of advisor surgeons - alternatively than each surgeons - had chopped their hours arsenic a effect of the pensions "tax-trap". It enactment that fig successful a property merchandise aft commissioning a survey successful 2019.

That's inactive a ample fig of surgeons to beryllium reducing their hours.

But determination is different problem, which is that the probe is what is known arsenic a self-selecting survey.

The questions were sent retired to the astir 30,000 members of the Royal College of Surgeons successful England and 1,890 of them responded.

There is simply a information that the lone radical who replied were those peculiarly acrophobic astir the taxation argumentation the survey was asking about.

Those little disquieted astir the taxation attraction of their pension whitethorn person been little apt to respond, which means the results whitethorn not person been typical of the membership.