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

What recovery? Households are no better off than during recession as incomes flatline and essential costs soarConfirming what cash-strapped families have known for some time, the Office for National Statistics reported that real household disposable income has changed little since 2009, despite cumulative real GDP growth of 4.2% since then. Meanwhile, the cost of essentials such as housing, energy and water has soared. The definition of “real household disposable income” is the money households have left over after tax and benefits, adjusted to...

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Russell Brand has never voted. He has a point

SOURCE CHANNEL 4 NEWS BLOG: Worlds collide as Russell Brand predicts a revolutionWhen Russell Brand told Jeremy Paxman there would an anti-capitalist revolution, the comedian was speaking for all those who despise what growing inequality is doing to their lives.OUR RELATED STORIES:The incomes of the bottom 90% have hardly risen in 20 years, whilst the top 1%’s has doubledGovernment's "Help To Buy" won't help those struggling to buy a house. But it will help people with rich parentsThe poorest fifth of Britons pay a higher rate of tax than the richest...

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Don't let's be beastly to the bankers!

We are grateful to @KimBallard3 for suggesting this wonderful ditty by Richard Parry (inspired by Noel Coward (not by his banking skills)) entreating us all to be nice to bankers, ably accompanied on the piano by Pete Rosser. After all, even bankers have feelings. They may even have mothers who may even love them. Who kno...

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Over 5,000 elderly and sick will die this winter because they can’t afford to heat their homes

KJ has a beer with a pal...SOURCE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE: Every year, mortality rises by 19% in the winter months in England. This amounts to an average of 27,000 “excess” winter deaths. 21.5% of all excess winter deaths are caused by cold homes.OUR RELATED STORIES:Graphs at a glance: OFGEM finally does something useful by publishing wholesale energy prices. See energy companies' bogus reason for hiking prices exposedGraphs at a glance: Energy companies' price hike tactics make switching futileWhat Miliband and Cameron surely know already: how...

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

The so-called “good bank” JP Morgan fined $13,000,000,000The unprecedented $13bn fine, imposed by US regulators, is expected to cover government charges and some compensation payments to firms and investors who bought mortgage-backed securities from Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. But the bank’s boss Jamie Dimon failed to convince regulators that the bumper payment should end criminal claims too. That means the bank – and possibly individual former staff – could still be open to cases from aggrieved buyers of the securities in the run up to...

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Interest Rate Swaps: how the FCA allowed accused banks to be judge and jury for their own dodgy deals

The banks' Interest Rate Swaps scam ruined businesses across the UK. Having explained how 'interest rate swaps' work and why they were sold in previous posts, we asked the undercover banker Honestly Banking to tell how the banks have managed to get themselves made judge and jury in the processing of compensation claims.Fantastic, amazing, a triumph! That's really the only way you can describe the FCA review of Interest Rate Swap mis-selling. The wonderful thing about it is that the banks that did the mis-selling have got to design, run and...

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Graphs at a glance: OFGEM finally does something useful by publishing wholesale energy prices! See energy companies' bogus reason for hiking prices exposed!

This is no laughing matter, so lets skip the levity. OFGEM, one of the few organisations in Britain that manages to make the FCA (formerly the FSA) not look uniquely cowardly and incompetent, has published some useful data! Is it OFGEM's Wikileaks moment? Is it a fat-finger accident? Or did they actually mean to publish this useful information?We like to think the best of everybody (we really do!) so lets assume they did this intentionally.Anyway, for the first time OFGEM is explicitly publishing wholesale energy cost data. The data explicitly...

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Thinking of switching energy supplier? Out of the frying pan...

SOURCE CONSUMER FUTURES: Percentage change in average energy bills since 2007. Timings of energy suppliers' price changes. Current prices.SOURCE GUARDIAN: The energy secretary, Ed Davey, called on electricity and gas suppliers to act rapidly to reveal their true profitability to customers and the energy regulator, as the government spent another day on the defensive over soaring bills. He said: "We need more transparency from the big six." He argued that companies such as Centrica, which owns British Gas, "need to be held to account for the profits...

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Graphs at a glance: Energy companies' price hike tactics make switching futile

The government's answer to gouging energy companies is to switch. In David Cameron's words:“There is something everyone can do, which is look to switch their electricity or gas bill from one supplier to another.”Cameron, washing his hands of the matter, says you're on your own - run for it! He would have us jump from one frying pan into another frying pan! Information on price rises from the Consumer Futures website reveals the futility of switching. The cheapest electricity provider is hardly ever also the cheapest gas provider....

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Graphs at a glance: Despite all the promises to spread the sugar London is the big winner from the HS2 high speed rail link

At the Tory party conference in October 2013 David Cameron claimed HS2 "is about bringing north and south together" creating centres of excellence outside London. Cameron proclaimed:"This country has been too London-centric for far too long. That’s why we need a new North-South railway line. The fact is this. The West Coast mainline is almost full. We have to build a new railway and the choice is between another old-style Victorian one – or a high speed one."In fact a study done by the HS2 organisation in March 2012 found the...

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Teachers strike against Michael Gove’s top-to-bottom shake up of the education system

Chris, Fee and KJ wonder whether Michael Gove has been over-reaching himself...SOURCE GUARDIAN: Teachers' strike: unions claim success as hundreds of schools closeNASUWT says latest one-day strike has support from parents and public, while DfE disputes scale of disruption. OUR RELATED STORIES:Graphs at a glance: see which government departments spend more than half their total staffing budget on consultants: it's 50% in the Dept for EducationGraphs at a glance - School class sizes in England are among the largest in the OECDIs Government trying...

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Channel4 News reports RBS accused of seizing small business assets and selling them at knock-down prices to an RBS subsidiary

Channel4 News report:"Small businesses have told Channel 4 News that when their property assets were seized by RBS they were sold off at auction to another arm of the business called West Register.The bank has sold properties belonging to debtors at below-market value after suddenly withdrawing credit.Property developer Chris Kashourides had a building in north London sold off for just £415,000 when the bank unexpectedly gave him seven days to pay off his overdraft in 2010.Four months later the property was resold on the open market for more than £1 million. Mr Kashourides was forced to sell 25 more of his properties at reduced prices thanks...

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

People at foodbanks give back food that needs cooking because they can’t afford to turn on the electricityThe Trussell Trust is calling for an inquiry after they registered a tripling in foodbank usage. Over 350,000 people received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks between April and September 2013, triple the numbers in the same period last year. They say that UK hunger is getting worse and the charity is calling for an inquiry into the causes of UK food poverty. Food prices have risen by 12.6% above inflation over the past...

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The British Red Cross launches an emergency food aid plan for the UK’s hungry – the first time since the Second World War

SOURCE INDEPENDENT: Red Cross launches emergency food aid plan for UK’s hungry – the first time since the Second World WarThe Red Cross will this winter start collecting and distributing food aid to the needy in Britain for the first time since the Second World War, as welfare cuts and the economic downturn send soaring numbers of people to soup kitchens and food banks across Europe. Its volunteers will be mobilised to go into supermarkets across the country at the end of November and ask shoppers to donate dry goods. Across Europe, the Red Cross...

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