Stefan got sanctioned.
He’d failed to go to a job interview—too busy, he thought sardonically, with an Ann Summers collection up his arse—and so his benefits were reduced.
“If you don’t go, you’re obviously not seriously looking to find work,” the bored drone at the Jobcentre told him.
“I just forgot,” Stefan said.
“Right. Right.”
She didn’t care. And honestly, Stefan didn’t either. That defiance from the day before had lasted, and he walked out with his reduced payment without really caring about where that left him. They paid the rent and council tax separately. What would they do now, cut off the electric if he failed to pay the bill again? So what. He only had it for the lights, the fridge, the microwave, and the shower. He could eat cold beans out of the tin, like he had in the h
