Genuine Hardship

Despite the Government's best efforts to simplify the benefits system so far that even Iain Duncan Smith can understand it, a depressing number of the deserving poor are still at considerable risk. The cap on rewards for failure means that senior bankers cannot even rely on their seven-figure bonuses to keep their children from starving. Instead, they are forced into underhanded tactics like seven-figure shares payouts, and humiliating expedients like running to the shareholders for extra pocket money. The next time you read complaints from some behind-the-blinds lurker who is nevertheless healthy enough to use social media, perhaps you might spare a thought for Antony Jenkins and his ilk, to whom we owe so much of our present situation and yet who have thus far shared so little in its joys.