Bedroom tax fiasco

Much as I despise the so-called bedroom tax, I will spare you the reasons why on this occasion, and instead comment on this news item about a loophole.  If I read the situation correctly, the government, or someone, has identified a loophole in the underoccupation rules.  Apparently this loophole was accidental, not deliberate.  The government is now alerting local authorities to the existence of that loophole.

And so once again I find myself writing about fat cats.  Were the rules written by someone who earned only the minimum wage?  (I believe that legislation is normally written by civil servants, and I would be surprised if government legislation is ever written by anyone else.)  Were the rules enforced by local authority personnel who earned only the minimum wage?

If you earn more than the minimum wage, then presumably your salary reflects the fact that you are worth more than the minimum wage.  If you are employed to write legislation, and you unintentionally create a loophole, then presumably you are either paid a very low salary, or else you are overpaid.  Likewise, if you are employed to act in accordance with legislation but you fail to implement that legislation correctly in every case, then presumably you are either paid a very low salary, or else you are overpaid.

This is all subjective of course.  What is a low salary?  Does anyone think they are paid well?  Consider the testimony of privileged journalist Petronella Wyatt.  If you don't have time to read all of it, she quotes a surgeon as saying he is poor.

I don't doubt that it can be rather hard to scrape by on a huge salary if you have trouble making good financial decisions.  It appears that some of the people she mentions have children in private schools, some of them borrowed money when they could and should have been saving, and some of them are obsessed with expensive designer clothes.  She mentions a work ethic, but I wonder how many of her posh friends would get out of bed for the minimum wage.

I strongly suspect that the bedroom tax loophole is yet another symptom of a society which rewards some people with salaries which are way out of proportion to their abilities.

Related posts include:
The cats stay fat
Energy sector fat cats
The betrayal of the low paid
To build on debt is to build on sand