How many people still send letters?

Borderland

Few countries can have passed through as many kingdoms and empires as Ukraine — the ‘borderlands’. These are just a few of the political entities which have controlled parts or all of modern-day Ukraine before it became an independent nation in 1991:

Scythian Kingdom; Roman Empire; Ostrogothic Kingdom; Bulgar Kingdom; Khazar Kingdom; Kievan Rus; Mongolia; Galicia-Volhynia; Poland; Lithuania; Ottoman Empire; Cossack Hetmanate; Austro-Hungarian Empire; Russia; Free Territory of Ukraine; Soviet Union.

Schemes and scams

The government hopes to raise £12 billion through the 1.25% rise in National Insurance contributions from April. How does this compare with money wrongfully claimed under Covid relief schemes?

According to HMRC estimates:

8.7% of furlough claims were wrongfully claimed, either fraudulently or in error.

The same applies to 2.5% of Self-Employed Income Support Scheme payments, and to 8.5% of Eat Out to Help Out payments.

The money lost through these three schemes between them is estimated at £5.8 billion.

Separately, the Treasury estimated that £4.9 billion of claims under the Bounce Back Loan scheme were wrongfully claimed.

Total of estimated fraud so far: £10.7 billion.

Snail mail

Royal Mail has introduced stamps with barcodes to try to ‘connect stamps with the digital age’. Does anyone send letters any more?

Number of letters sent in Britain

2016/17 11.7 billion

2017/18 11.1 billion

2018/19 10.4 billion

2019/20 10.0 billion

2020/21 7.8 billion

Between 2018/19 and 2020/21, the number of parcels rose from 2.11 billion to 3.56 billion.

Source: Ofcom

Break-up booster?

Did lockdowns increase the number of divorces?

Number of divorces in England and Wales

2020 103,592

2019 108,421

2018 91,299

2017 102,007

2016 107,071

The ONS notes that a delay in processing data meant that some cases from 2018 were pushed into 2019.