A unit set up in Whitehall to encourage people to take better life choices came under fire today after its staff racked up an £8,000 travel bill.
Labour MP Luciana Berger said the behavioural insight team, based in the Cabinet Office, was an "extravagance" at a time when householders were feeling the pinch.
It was formed to apply the theory that people's habits can be changed without government regulation, instead nudging them in the direction they should go.
Nicknamed the "nudge unit" it has been focusing on five key areas: how to improve organ donations, stopping smoking, promoting greener cars, food hygiene and a project to encourage charitable giving.
But Mrs Berger dubbed the unit the "Prime Minister's vanity project" only days after an influential group of peers said nudges alone were unlikely to make people act differently.
Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin has also admitted the £500,000 team is experimental and there is no evidence it will work.
Questions by Ms Berger uncovered that the seven-strong unit and its academic advisers had run up travel expenses of £8,198 since September last year - about £750 a month.
But the Liverpool Wavertree MP said it had not delivered any solid results, saying: "Right now household budgets are being squeezed by rising prices and higher taxes.
It is incredible that at the same time these hardworking taxpayers are having to fork out thousands of pounds towards travel costs for the Prime Minister's vanity project.
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"Despite these costs we are yet to see any concrete benefits from the so- called 'nudge unit'. It is hard to see how ministers can justify this extravagance when they are cutting spending for our police and schools."
But a spokesman for the Cabinet Office insisted the team had made a "big difference" in several areas, including changing the wording on tax demands which had "significantly" increased payment rates. "These travel costs cover both the Cabinet Office staff as well as the unpaid advisory team," the spokesman added.
