Downloads (and caches) the OBR Welfare Trends Report charts and tables workbook and returns annual working-age welfare spending as a share of GDP, split into incapacity-related and non-incapacity spending.
Value
An obr_tbl with the standard v0.4.0 schema (columns:
period, period_type, series, metric_type, value, unit).
Values are spending as a percentage of GDP; metric_type is "pct",
unit is "pct".
Details
Data cover fiscal years from 1978-79 to 2028-29, from the October 2024 Welfare Trends Report, the OBR's most recent report on incapacity benefits. Later reports cover other themes and do not update this chart.
See also
Other welfare:
get_incapacity_caseloads(),
get_incapacity_spending()
Examples
# \donttest{
op <- options(obr.cache_dir = tempdir())
try({
welfare <- get_welfare_spending()
welfare[welfare$series == "Working-age incapacity benefits spending" &
welfare$period >= "2000-01", ]
})
#> Waiting 2s for retry backoff ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
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#> Warning: Could not resolve a current Welfare Trends Report (October 2024) URL from 1
#> candidate.
#> ℹ Falling back to
#> <https://obr.uk/download/welfare-trends-report-october-2024-charts-and-tables/>.
#> ! Returned data may be older than expected. Run with internet access, or pin a
#> vintage explicitly when that feature ships.
#> ℹ Downloading
#> welfare_trends_october_2024__welfare-trends-report-october-2024-charts-and-tables.xlsx
#> from OBR...
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#> Waiting 4s for retry backoff ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
#> Error : Failed to download
#> <https://obr.uk/download/welfare-trends-report-october-2024-charts-and-tables/>.
#> ✖ HTTP 403 Forbidden.
options(op)
# }