So the first post, new blog, OMG! Lets start with what this blog is about and why it exists.
Unemployment and pretty much all other benefits in the UK are handled by an entity called the "Department of Work and Pensions" (DWP) known many years ago as "Department of Social Security" (DSS, who used to issue UB40 books for signing on, hence the bands name.. ES40 doesn't have the same ring IMHO), now the DWP gobbles up great gobs of cash and every so often the media jumps up and down about how much money this is and how everyone should rally against the unemployed scroungers who are sucking the country dry.
Fair enough you might think. But how exactly are the DWP spending all of that money we've all paid in to the system to form our safety net? Whilst their figures are as with all government spending available to the public it makes for dry reading and frankly the amount of hyperbole surrounding it means everyone gets a little... excited.
Now depending on who you talk to and who you believe I am a "work shy scrounger who should be sweeping the streets for my benefits" or a "down on my luck person who needs help and wrapping in cotton wool and assistance", but that does mean that I'm intrinsically involved with the great machine that is the DWP; I get to see its underbelly and unlike a lot of people I'm cynical and twisted enough to poke at it and see where my money went.
I also figured that with the current media outrage over unemployment and public spending this might make a small (very small) counter-point to it. So yeah in essence this is me sticking two fingers up at the press and going "Bite me" in a somewhat factual way.
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