Unclaimed benefits

Morning all,

Apologies if this is a silly question but I’m doing some work to highlight the issues about unclaimed benefits.

We often hear about the billions of pounds that are unclaimed in benefits each year but when it refers to a billion, is this figure an English billion (i.e. a million million) or an American billion (i.e. a thousand million)?

As I say, apologies if this is a silly question but if someone could clarify this for me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

John

From the Oxford English:

“In British English, a billion used to be equivalent to a million million (i.e. 1,000,000,000,000), while in American English it has always equated to a thousand million (i.e. 1,000,000,000). British English has now adopted the American figure, though, so that a billion equals a thousand million in both varieties of English”

Thanks Tom, much appreciated

John