🎼 Pigeons in flight 🎶. Circling around our neighbour’s garden waiting for her to put out their food.
Status:
I checked my bank statement this week and saw a £10 payment from Department of Work and Pensions. I wasn’t expecting this. Turns out this is my Christmas bonus from the government as part of my PIP eligibility, which I attained earlier this year for how the chronic fatigue has disabled me.
I’m kinda fascinated by this. We live in an era when the headlines are dominated by the welfare bill with benefits under threat from all comers, yet this has presumably been going on for quite some time under the radar. Maybe it’s not worth cutting as it’s such a small amount? Or maybe the optics of cutting a “Christmas bonus” are too much even for this zeitgeist.
I’m going to assume it’s never gone up because inflation would not allow it to remain a nice whole number. When was it introduced? How much would it be worth in real terms today? And will it ever go up?
(And because I can’t resist answering questions, it was introduced in 1972 (it’s that year again!) and has never gone up. It should be worth £119.12 adjusted for inflation, it costs the state £185m and there are no plans to increase it.)
Overnight listening:
Reading:
- Sinners was the hit Hollywood didn’t want - Ryan Coogler’s bloodsucker blockbuster is all about Black creative freedom. No wonder the industry saw it as a threat.
- The magical life of Toni Basil: how she taught Elvis, enchanted Bowie - and had a smash hit with ‘Mickey’ - I love these profiles of the weirdos behind the scenes of the 20th century, nudging greatness along.