Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 31st May)

Bankers' salaries up 37% over the last 4 years since the Banking Crisis.To get around the regulation of their bonuses, they are switching the money from bonuses to salary. It looks like overall pay has dropped, but not as much as their share prices. FINANCIAL TIMESFinancial companies were forced to remove or amend more than 300 advertisements last year for breaching regulations, but details of the offending promotions have been kept secret. FSA more worried about protecting rippers-off than protecting you!This leaves consumers with no way of knowing...

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The government's new StartUp loan scheme for under-25s won't inspire young entrepreneurs

Forget whether we should be steering the young into setting up a business in the middle of a recession. A small loan makes no difference to most entrepreneurs, who are driven not by money but by emotional factors.By Stefan Stern, visiting professor of management practice at the Cass Business School. You can't keep a good entrepreneur down. Take David Young, Lord Young of Graffham, who as a minister tried to rebrand the Department for Trade and Industry (as was) as the "Department for Enterprise" in the 1980s. In spite of a slight...

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How much does the billions dodged by fat cats and corporates cost the average taxpayer?

KJ, Chris and Fee celebrate HMRC's launch of a new app that tells you... what, exact...

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Liebrary - Beecroft Report claims sacking people in the UK is too difficult. But the OECD says we are already nearly the most easily fired of all people in the developed world.

 It is well known that if you say something with sufficient confidence people will believe you. Facts become unimportant so long as they remain hidden. And you don't get to be a top politician or businessman by letting facts get in the way of your opinions and interests.The Beecroft Report, written for the UK government by the venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft (whose investments include wonga.com, offering 4,000% payday loans to the hard-up), was completed in October 2011 and kept under wraps until it was leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper...

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The Tobin Tax was meant for poor developing countries, not for the EU bailout!

British Prime Minister David Cameron is against the "Robin Hood" financial transaction tax. Fee and KJ are for it, but disagree on how it should be sp...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 24th May)

Signing up to an energy deal that offers ‘added extras’ (e.g. charitable donations, shopping vouchers, free gifts) could swell your gas and electricity bills by hundreds of pounds a year. Examples include SSE Energyplus Pulse, who will give £10 to the British Heart Foundation if you sign up with them, but it costs £87 more than their own cheapest deal, and £138 more than the cheapest deal on the market. WHICH?Dozens of civil servants were paid "off pay-roll" for over 10years, avoiding tax. Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary...

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Train guards get 5% cut of penalty fares

The gang ask whether ticketing is designed to conf...

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Passenger Focus takes on rail operators that fine and prosecute passengers who had no intention to defraud

Have you been stung with a £200+ penalty fare or court summons? The consumer watchdog Passenger Focus is challenging rail operators to change the way they deal with passengers who don't have the right ticket. They want consistency, discretion, fairness, accountability, and transparency. They are also making a direct appeal for passengers to tell them of their experiences.Ticket to ride?By Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus.Passenger Focus published today a major investigation into the passenger experience of Unpaid Fares Notices.No...

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Liebrary: Is the top rate tax really paid by the wealthiest? In fact, the low paid have the highest marginal tax rate at 95%

Who do benefits really benefit? There is a general misconception that benefits are simply handouts to the poor. A misconception abused by drum banging politicians promising to starve the “work-shy” back into jobs. They hope to drum up votes by cutting benefit claimants' incomes and booting them out of the more desirable residential areas, with the collateral benefits of lower taxes and posher neighbours for the working man and woman.The reality is benefits are just as much a subsidy to businesses:a)      Businesses...

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Worried about the global crisis? Watch the Alternative Austerity Olympics instead!

Why the London 2012 Olympic Games will be just a sideshow this sum...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 17th May)

Major UK-based firms cut secret tax deals with authorities in Luxembourg to avoid millions in corporation tax in Britain.The BBC's Panorama focuses on GlaxoSmithKline and media company Northern & Shell (owners of Channel 5, the Express, OK! Magazine and others). The secret tax deals were devised by accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. BBCIt's the same train at the same time, the difference is you've four tickets covering the journey rather than one and the total price drops from £264 to £40, says Moneysavingexpert.According to Moneysavingexpert.com instead...

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Holidaying in Greece? Better go before they exit the Euro!

Fee tells KJ why she's hot-footing it to Gre...

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OFGEM misses another opportunity to control rip-off energy bills by improving energy price transparency

Many companies duck and dive to avoid accusations that their charges are too high and their profits excessive. From plumbers to car repairmen to bankers, they all have a perfectly incomprehensible reason why they charge so much. Few do this more than the Big Six energy companies (British Gas, SSE, EDF, Scottish Power, Npower and EON). To expose the degree of profiteering that may be happening the energy companies would have to be transparent about both their operating costs and the profits they make on their wholesale energy sales. Something...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 10th May)

Water bills rise above inflation, yet almost a quarter of all water supply is still lost in leaks. Are water firms actually using that extra money to fix the leaks, or make profits? The regulator Ofwat seems incapable of finding out. DAILY MAILPaying a living wage is affordable for big companies in UK banking, construction, computing and food production sectors, according to a new report by the think tanks Resolution Foundation and IPPR. The average increase in the wage bill for listed companies in these sectors would be about 1 per cent or...

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Aviva fat cat CEO stumbles on the magic number

Chris, Fee and KJ on the departure of Aviva boss Andrew M...

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Banks complain regulation will smother the cheap credit needed for growth

Fee, Chris and KJ ponder a solution to the economic slowd...

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Interest Rates Swaps being mis-sold to SMEs: a layman's guide to a textbook banking rip-off

To understand a rip-off of this scale, designed to be incomprehensible to customers, regulators and lawmakers, you need an insider's insight. Provided by our guest author Honestly Banking, the undercover banker.At Honestly Banking we wanted to have a look inside the workings of Swaps, Hedging, Caps and Collars and throw some light into this obscure and complicated world. There has been a remarkable amount of media interest around the Swap mis-selling scandal. Inevitably it is hard to capture the real complexities of this involved area...

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