I agree. It should have been done, and the benefits system mostly abolished, decades ago. Given the organisation of welfare in the UK it is so very, very easy

I agree. It should have been done, and the benefits system mostly abolished, decades ago. Given the organisation of welfare in the UK it is so very, very easy to fall through the gaps. It's designed for the world of the 1930s-70s. There's no point in a safety net unless it's reliable, and it clearly isn't. If you had a simple 9-5 job and been made redundant, with P45, the system seems to cope. If you are self-employed, an ex-busines owner, or juggling multiple, possibly zero hour, contracts the system breaks utterly. Claiming seems to be an entirely manual process with various people employed to validate, check and ask questions, so it is very expensive to do. If you knew you were getting that £100 (or whatever) a week, every week regardless, you'd risk the uncertain project, or even the second attempt, learning from your mistakes. The system right now puts you off ever trying anything not 9-5 again, because you'll know it'll be months to get any help out of them. Of course, like talk of simplifying the tax system, I am not optimistic it will ever happen. Or it will be an ineffective token gesture that solves nothing.