Saying it straight...........

If you haven't seen this guy before, you've missed an extraordinarily erudite speaker who was a comedian before he found his niche. He is serious when he is funny, and he is funny when he is serious. And, boy, does he make sense. This is his latest, and I think the first of 2011.

http://dotsub.com/media/b5ee5ada-5b37-4b0b-9916-e0896337ec4b/e/m

Soon to be OAP

Overheard in the Local Cafe

At the weekend I was sitting in a local supermarket café for the obligatory cuppa whilst out doing my weekly shop.
A family were sitting behind me, mother in her 40’s and daughter who looked around 17/18.
A statement that the daughter made (rather loudly – my hearing is not what it used to be) made me wonder what the hell is happening.
The statement was about her getting a flat with her mate and “ as she only got £600 per month on the social” she could not afford a flat on her own, but with both of them getting that amount they could afford it between them.
Now to me £600 per month equates to £150 per week tax free for a single woman of say 18 yrs of age. That is the benefits she is entitled to – and from what she was saying she knew exactly what she could and should claim for.
What astounds me is that it has obviously been decided by the great and the good, that a single young person needs £150 per week to live on. If this is the case why is it that a pensioner only requires £96 to live on (£150 for a couple) – that’s the basic pension for a single person in receipt of the “old age pension”.
To me it beggars belief that the young require more than the older, who need to find the additional cost of heating etc, just to stay alive.
I am not yet in receipt of OAP - but will be in six mnonths, luckily I have the military pension also so I won’t need to live on that sum.
Is it only me that thinks that benefits for all people should be based on the amount that the government believe is the correct sum for someone in receipt of OAP?