It's inevitable that there is a high percentage of concessions on prescription charges, since the poor and particularly the elderly have the overwhelming majority of illnesses. Many of the poor ill are poor because they are ill.
One of the populist rags the other day had a story on how more than half the population is on benefits. The "story" came from Civitas (address 55 Tufton St) so we know where it's going before we read it.
They say a fifth of households get more in benefits than the pay in tax. It's not clear whether they include VAT in tax but they do include the NHS and social care in benefits. This doesn't surprise me given given the trends in the distribution of income.
They blame Covid and all the special payments for creating a 'dependence' economy. It's quite a result to pay more out in benefits than Labour and at the same time to have greater inequality but of course the two go together.
The most difficult statistic to digest at the moment is that 24% still intend to vote Conservative on a survey of voting intentions. I doubt whether the news on Zahawi, ertswhile Chancellor and leadership candidate, will even move the dial - we must by now be down to the hard core who will tolerate any amount of dishonesty and depravity from the crooks in charge.
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