You know how according to my new publishing schedule I am supposed to publish useful and exciting book review and/or discussion today? Well, I have written one; actually I have two because I can’t wait to tell you about the new e-book by my friends at My University Money. But this will have to wait for a day or so because something happened today that took me in a completely different direction. Signs should be respected even by rationalists like me. So, here it goes.

Last night, The Money Principle published a piece on the UK budget; one of the controversial points in it is the withdrawal of ‘child benefit’ – this is a relatively modest payment people with children get. Thinking through the budget and reading through John’s post, I had a niggling feeling that something was trying to come out; something that I have vaguely noticed before but never completely managed to get the grip of.

This morning John and I were having coffee, discussing another sticky point of the budget – the way in which it disadvantages people over 65 – and it suddenly crystallised and took definite shape. We mentioned that the child benefit is £20.30 (roughly $30) which means that we should be getting about £81.20 per month ($128). But I know my numbers and I knew that we have been getting £53.60 ($84) per 4 weeks. This can’t be right!