Full Fact, the UK's largest fact checking charity, has compiled a roundup of recent fact checks. The organisation works to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information.
How much is spent on benefits?
Benefits and the amount the Government spends on welfare has become one of the most hotly debated issues in politics. Full Fact's new explainer tackles some of the most common questions and claims about the benefits system and how much it costs.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) forecast that in real terms £342.8 billion will be spent on benefits in Great Britain in 2026/27 – up from £329.1 billion the previous financial year. Nearly half of it is spent on pensions.
Since 2020/21 overall real terms benefits spending is forecast to have increased by approximately 16%. As a percentage of GDP, benefits spending is lower than it was in 2020/21, though the UK's GDP was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in that year. It has been increasing since 2022/23.
Who claims benefits?
The state pension makes up the largest part of welfare spending, followed by universal credit, then incapacity and disability benefits. According to DWP figures, 24.3 million people in Great Britain were claiming some form of benefits in August 2025. Ten million of these people were of working age.
Specific claims about immigrants claiming benefits are often seen – whether they can depends on their immigration status. Most immigrants who are in the UK on temporary visas, including work and study visas, asylum seekers and those who are in the UK without the right to be here, for example whose visas have expired, are not eligible to claim mainstream benefits. This is called “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF).
Asylum seekers can apply for specific financial and housing support from the Government, but this operates separately from the benefits system. In contrast, immigrants with EU settled status, indefinite leave to remain or refugee status are typically able to access the benefits system in the same way as UK-born people can.
Elephant flood video debunked
A video of an elephant apparently rescuing a man from floodwater has been shared online with the suggestion that it shows the recent flooding in Nepal. But this is not correct. One post shared the video with the claim “in Nepal, elephants were seen saving people from the devastating flood”, while another included “#Nepal” in its caption.
Full Fact has not been able to verify the origins of the footage itself, and cannot say for sure if it depicts a real incident. However, this video has been online since at least August 9, more than two weeks before this week's flash flooding in Nepal. Several hundred people have been confirmed dead after the disaster, which reportedly took place after the collapse of part of a Himalayan glacier.
The clip was posted on YouTube on August 9 by a Bangladeshi news site with overlaid text which says, in Bengali: “Pet elephant saves owner from flood.” The same video was also posted to Facebook on the same day by an Indian news site which claimed it was filmed during flooding which hit the country's Assam region in July.
Miscaptioned videos and images often circulate in the aftermath of natural disasters. It is important to consider whether what you are seeing online is accurate before sharing. Full Fact's guides to identifying misleading images and videos can help with this.
