Shocking and terrible news from the Department of Work and Pensions.

The unproductive working practices at the Department
for Work and Pensions are a case in point. It is one of the biggest
government departments, with 135,000 on the payroll, a third more than
the Army.

This vast cohort is tasked with
administering about half the welfare state – the bit that pays out
benefits and pensions. For this, according to the latest accounts, the
DWP costs about £5.30 for every £100 disbursed.

Yet
so onerous and dangerous is this task, the staff apparently take 12.6
days each in sickies a year, on top of their generous holiday allowance
of five weeks plus (including the Queen’s birthday). That is nearly
twice the rate of absenteeism in the private sector.

Clear and persuasive evidence that being a bureaucrat is dangerous to one’s health. Much more so than working in the private sector. It is therefore the duty of the Government and the Health and Safety Executive to do something about this terrible situation. We cannot, in our modern world, put up with such vile and disgusting practices, making people work in situations that make them ill.

There is also the point that people being ill are a deadweight cost upon the economy and reducing such would be a pareto improvement…it would make us all better off.

There is nothing for it, only one possible course of action. The Government must fire these bureaucrats and thus free from thir burdens of ill health.