It was reported earlier this week that the thousand richest individuals in the UK are now worth £547 billion, and that this amount had doubled during the last ten years. To put that in perspective, it's enough to fund the entire Social Security budget including pensions, tax credits and disability benefits - an estimated £220 billion - for two entire years.
In contrast, one group of people have seen their income halved, or often more than halved - and no-one is reporting their plight.
'Welfare' has at last become an issue in the General Election campaign, with Danny Alexander's revelations about the Tories' alleged plans for Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit, and there is political capital to be made from the potential losses to 'hard-working families' of means-testing Child Benefit, ending it at 16 regardless of a young person staying on in education, or restricting it to the first two children. That's all reprehensible, but so is much that has already happened and, with the exception of the 'Bedroom Tax', the main parties have no plans to reverse any of it.
That's bad news for people like Jeff (obviously not his real name). Jeff is 61 and, after decades as one of those lauded 'hard-working people', he's out of work. Jeff's previous jobs - the last of which he held down for over ten years - have been semi-skilled or unskilled and demanded a level of physical fitness which he does his best to maintain (cycling about eight miles twice a week to do voluntary work), but which few employers looking for labourers would anticipate finding in a man of his age. As a result, he's been out of work for over a year.
Before the state pension age for women started to rise, after the 2010 election, men like Jeff could claim Pension Credit from 60, rather than Jobseeker's Allowance. Pension Credit is available to both men and women without any work-seeking conditions, even if they have not formally retired. That doesn't stop them seeking work if they wish - it probably wouldn't have prevented Jeff from doing so. Pension Credit for a single adult is now £151.20 per week and recipients are exempt from the 'Bedroom Tax' and entitled to maximum Council Tax Support.
Unfortunately, the age at which you can receive it is now 62 1/2 and rising by increments, which means Jeff won't reach it until sometime in 2016. In the meantime, he has to claim Jobseeker's Allowance of £73.10 per week, less than half the Pension Credit rate for a single person, and pay 30% of his Council Tax (about £6 per week) and a 'Bedroom Tax' of £11 from this.
While our 'fat cats' have twice the wealth they had ten years ago, Jeff has less than half of what his entitlement would have been at his age in 2005.
It gets worse. Jeff has been sanctioned. I cannot say why without a potential breach of confidentiality, but can say the root of the problem lies with the Universal Jobsmatch computer system and that, as Jeff is no IT whizkid, he has come unstuck with this system before. We've asked for the DWP's decision to be looked at again and will appeal if it isn't, but while this happens, Jeff gets no money at all for the first two weeks and hardship payments of less than £44 per week after that - for three months. If he falls behind with his Council Tax payments there will be Court costs and possible bailiff action; if he doesn't pay his Bedroom Tax, there will be Court costs and potential possession proceedings. If he doesn't continue to 'actively seek work' while trying to cope with this, he'll lose his hardship payments. At least it's spring, so heating can more safely take second place to eating.
The next time you hear about the 'triple lock' to protect pensioners, pause to remember that cuts to 'working age benefits' now impact on people well into their sixties and that, by the end of the next Parliament, that category will include benefits for people up to the age of sixty-six.
More of the cuts to the Social Security budget are coming from poorer 'baby boomers' than we are led to believe but, as older people are more likely to vote, no wonder the politicians are keeping quiet about it.
*Update: the DWP refused to overturn Jeff's sanction, despite independent evidence that he had done everything reasonable to seek work during the weeks he was accused of failing to do so. Fortunately, he stuck to his guns and, with the help of one of my colleagues, took his case to an independent tribunal and won it after a very short hearing.
