Viagra for Penguins and the Humorous Bedroom Tax

Remember all those April Fools Day spoofs of yesteryear?
First there was the "Swiss Spaghetti Harvest", "Big Ben Goes Digital", "Viagra for Penguins" and of course that plan to open up a coffee shop on the summit of Cairngorm Mountain in Scotland!

All great stuff really and what a laugh!
Mad really! I mean just you couldn't make it up! I for one laughed my socks off big time!

It seems that the UK Government has a sense of humour as well and has today devised and implemented a funny old April Fool wheeze for those on benefit called the "Humorous Bedroom Tax Scheme".
It's a real laugh! In fact it's the biggest laugh since that poll tax thingy, which the yet to be buried in Westminster Abbey, ex-prime minister Lady Thatcher imposed on the dominion of Scotland all those years ago.

Under the "Humorous Bedroom Tax Scheme" anyone in social housing with a spare bedroom will have their housing benefit cut by 14%, while those with two or more unoccupied rooms will see it slashed by 25%.

Social housing in case you don't know is what we all in the past knew as Council Housing, Homes fit for Heroes and Affordable Housing. In other words it was what folk in the UK mainly lived in until the sell off of housing and assets during the 1970's.

Government ministers advise that the "Humorous Bedroom Tax Scheme", which David Cameron calls the "Spare Room Subsidy", will encourage people to move to smaller properties and save around £480m a year from the spiralling housing benefit bill. But critics such as the National Housing Federation (NHF) argue that as well as causing social disruption, the move risks increasing costs to taxpayers because a shortage of smaller social housing properties may force many people to downsize into the more expensive private rented sector.
Some folk even wonder if £480m is a huge amount in modern day terms since it equates to less than 2% of the cost of the Trident Missile Programme and less than 900 luxury houses in the London Borough of Mayfair.

Around 600,000 folk in the UK are likely to be affected, including the sick and disabled. In fact the folk most likely to be affected are mainly the sick and disabled.
You have to have a sense of humour really, I mean they must be joking?

Oh wait, it's All Fools Day...