The benefits system

A Very British Dude seems to be doing OK. As he puts it:

[...] I'm a single man, of robust physical health and no catastrophic mental illness. I earn reasonable money - though things are a bit tight as I've just bought a house.

Sounds good to me. Pillar of society rather than underclass, I would say. But the Dude has decided to do a bit of an experiment. He's decided to see just how much he can wring out of the benefits system. He has clocked up working tax credits already..

£32 every 4 weeks. This took a long time to process and I spoke to no fewer than 6 different poeple. Admittedly I did apply for backdating, and refused to answer most questions, but it took a lot of civil servant's time to give me an extra night on the piss every month.

Next up, council tax benefit..

Upon speaking to the call centre, they suggested, no insisted upon a home visit, to help with the monstrously intrusive 18-page form. Going through it, line by line, it transpires that much of this data is unnessesary - but they collect and store the data anyway, like good little facists.

As the Dude says, we don't live in a sensible society.

Read about it here.