new council tax relief is, actually, a tontine

This is another train wreck waiting to happen

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/23/poll-tax-back-cameron-localism

For those of you who were wondering, then from wikipedia:

A tontine is an investment plan for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th. It combines features of a group annuity and a lottery. Each subscriber pays an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity. As members die, their shares devolve to the other participants, and so the value of each annuity increases. On the death of the last member, the scheme is wound up. In a variant, which has provided the plot device for most fictional versions, on the death of the penultimate member the capital passes to the last survivor.

There’s an episode of The Simpsons using that as a plot device. </unhelpful comment>