We are 20% Neanderthal? It's all starting to make sense...

KJ and Fee put two and two together...

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Fifth of Neanderthals' genetic code lives on in modern humans
The Neanderthal traces in our genetic makeup are the lasting legacy of sexual encounters between our direct ancestors and the Neanderthals they met when they walked out of Africa and into Eurasia about 65,000 years ago.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

New Year Message: Time to stop ordinary Britons being subtly divided by mistrust of ordinary Britons

Graphs at a glance: 9,836 prosecutions for benefit fraud v 617 for tax fraud. Yet benefit fraud costs us a fraction of tax fraud

Graphs at a glance: See how local authority cuts have hit the poorest areas first and hardest

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 30th January)

RBS payouts to UK staff expected to total £500m despite an £8bn loss

The bank is now expected to show an £8bn loss after announcing that mis-selling scandals and legal bills in the US were forcing it to take a £3bn hit. Analysts at Credit Suisse calculated the bank's total losses since the 2008 bailout would reach £43bn, almost as much as the £45bn pumped in by taxpayers to buy shares in RBS to stop it collapsing. The top management team have waived their bonuses for 2013 but other staff will expect to receive payouts, including Rory Cullinan, who is to run the new bad bank being set up by RBS. GUARDIAN

Fracking under homes could be allowed without permission

Ministers are considering changing trespass laws to make it easier for energy companies to carry out fracking beneath people's homes without permission. The move comes amid concern that fracking for shale gas could otherwise be held back by lengthy and costly court proceedings. Shale gas exploration typically involves drilling down vertically and out horizontally, often for more than a mile. Currently operators need to ask homeowners before they drill under their land, but they have a right to appeal by law if an agreement cannot be reached. BBC NEWS

The great migration south: 80% of new private sector jobs are in London

The brain drain meant that every major city outside the south-east is losing young people to London. The report by the think tank Centre for Cities highlights the need for better infrastructure, investment in skills and reforms to planning, and noted that Bradford, Sheffield, Bristol, Southampton, Blackpool and Glasgow saw employment shrink in both private and public sectors. Britain is one of the world's most centralised countries. In Germany the government is in Berlin, the financial centre is Frankfurt and there are cultural hubs in Hamburg and Munich. In the UK, London has it all. What's more, the UK Treasury keeps a much tighter hold of the purse strings than finance ministries in other rich nations. Local government raises 17% of its income from local taxation in the UK, compared to an average of 55% for other members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of more than 30 rich countries. GUARDIAN

Vince Cable undermines chancellor with 'wrong sort of recovery' message

Cable warned that weak exports and a hoarding of cash by businesses meant "the shape of the recovery has not been all that we might have hoped for". Instead, the recovery was based on the same sort of consumer borrowing that caused the crash. His remarks also implied the Liberal Democrats will not necessarily vote for the deficit reduction plan Osborne intends to put to MPs this autumn in an updated charter for fiscal responsibility. Cable argued that the additional £30bn austerity proposed by the chancellor after 2015 went beyond the joint coalition commitment to eradicate the structural part of the UK's current budget deficit. GUARDIAN

Prosecutors finally drop case against men caught "stealing" waste food from Iceland bins

Three men caught taking discarded food from bins outside an Iceland store will not now be prosecuted after an explosion of criticism over the decision to bring charges against them, including from the company's chief executive. The Crown Prosecution Service said it would drop its case despite having previously said there was "significant public interest" in prosecuting the men. They were caught last year taking tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and Mr Kipling cakes from the dustbins behind a branch of the high-street retailer. One of the accused said he had taken the food because he needed it to eat and did not consider that he had done anything illegal or dishonest in removing food destined for landfill from a skip. GUARDIAN

Rivals to follow Tesco in revealing amount of UK food wasted – an estimated 15m tonnes nationally

Tesco, which revealed it generated 28,500 tonnes of food waste, gave the following examples: two-thirds of bagged salad was thrown out, either in-store or by shoppers, and 40% of apples were wasted. The UK's biggest grocers have pledged to disclose the volume of food discarded by their stores in an effort to cut down on the millions of tonnes wasted each year. Retailers have been under pressure to act after Tesco admitted it generated 28,500 tonnes of food waste at its stores and distribution centres in the first six months of last year alone. Friends of the Earth said: "Food waste has been growing over the last few decades because of the way supermarkets have driven consumption. These figures will indicate how over-purchasing and other poor buying practices are occurring, but retailers need to really examine whether their marketing strategies are fit for purpose in today's resource-confined world." GUARDIAN

Bank customers mis-sold duff packaged accounts winning thousands of pounds in compensation

Many customers were automatically signed up for deals by pushy bank sales staff. Some were told the accounts were their only option, and the benefits were often exaggerated. As a result, many customers found they never knew the account additions existed - and didn’t even want them. New figures show there have been thousands of complaints from account holders who say they paid up to £300 a year for the perks. Independent body the Financial Ombudsman Service has seen a 155 per cent rise in complaints over the past nine months. And in eight out of ten cases it is finding in favour of the consumer and forcing the bank to pay compensation. Many customers are receiving thousands of pounds. Someone who paid £25 a  month for five years for an account typically including breakdown cover, mobile phone and travel insurance would get at least £1,600. A packaged account is a current account where you pay a monthly fee for perks. Typically these include travel insurance, breakdown cover, mobile phone policies and preferential loan rates. DAILY MAIL

Savers' hopes of seeing rise in interest rates being dashed by banks with £130bn war chest of cheap cash

The £80bn taxpayer-backed Funding for Lending scheme in particular, which gave banks a cheap source of cash to lend as mortgages, meant banks no longer needed to fund these deals from savers. With no reason to attract savers, savings interest was cut on many deals. Just before Funding for Lending was launched, average rates on easy-access accounts were 1.55 per cent. But as of last month, the average had fallen to 0.82 per cent. Nevertheless, savers are still saving. The amount in ‘non-interest bearing accounts’, which includes current accounts, jumped by £21billion in the past 12 months to more than £130 billion, Bank of England figures reveal. DAILY MAIL

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The debate on decades of stagnant incomes for the bottom 90% – even when the economy grows – is heating up

Chris gets shown round the workplace...

SOURCE BBC NEWS: Are we really any better off than we were?
The government has released figures which claim to show that real take-home pay has increased for most people in the last year. They are using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which shows that take-home pay between April 2012 and April 2013 outstripped inflation for most people. But as well as producing its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the Office of National Statistics produces figures for average weekly earnings. Whereas ASHE is a once-a-year survey, weekly earnings figures are produced every month. They are taken from a much smaller survey sample, but they are more up to date. The latest figures actually show that earnings increased by just 0.9%, between the autumn of 2012 and the autumn of 2013. That is well below the rate of inflation.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

Are you paid less than the value you add? Then you are subsidising UK Plc. Welcome to Low Pay Britain

Since 1979, Labour or Tory, the rich/poor divide always widened while UK growth remained the same

What's your age and where do you work? See your chances of being low paid

Commons IPSA committee claims public support for MP pay rise, yet their own polling shows there's hardly any

Ministry of Justice outsourcing calamities cause pay cuts and threaten justice, say House of Commons committees

Liebrary: Do we have to maintain exorbitant pay for bankers because everybody else does? See the data that shows we've been suckered

Graphs at a glance: How the top 1% of the top 1% suck up wealth from the bottom 99% of the top 1%

Democracy puts strength in the hands of the many. So why in democratic Britain are the 90% treated like cattle for milking?

Graphs at a glance: Impact of occupation, unemployment, and geography on death rates in Britain

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Graphs at a glance: Government policy of cutting the cost of Justice risks denying justice for the innocent and the guilty

Being beastly to foreigners seems to be back in vogue. At least to foreigners without much money. In its pursuit of popularity the Tory Party proposed stopping printing welfare leaflets in foreign languages and stop providing translators at benefits offices for those who don't speak English.


According to an un-named 'Tory insider' quoted by the Daily Mail, "The vast majority of voters will think this idea is plain common sense. It is unreasonable to expect taxpayers to spend huge sums on translators when people should be learning to read and write English."

Maybe the Tory insider is right about voters, maybe not. Either way, denying poor foreigners their legal right to benefits by putting up a language barrier won't really affect the "vast majority of voters". On the other hand, the government's ongoing outsourcing of providing interprepters for the Justice System will. Impairing foreigners' access to good interpreters when they appear in courts and police stations will affect all of us. Those voters who care little whether an innocent foreigner gets an undeserved punishment should remember: when the innocent get punished for a crime they did not commit the guilty who did commit the crime get away to offend again.


A report by the National Audit Office in January 2014 took another look at the performance of the Ministry of Justice's attempt at outsourcing the provision of interpreters to the justice system. 

The Ministry of Justice had earlier been scolded by Parliament's Justice Committee and the National Audit Office for the calamitous performance of this outsourcing arrangement. A key element in this outsourcing cockup was Capita (the outsourcer) slashing the rates of pay of interpreters. This pay-slash caused a boycott by the best qualified (Tier 1) interpreters, resulting in an unacceptable level of Capita's failure to provide suitable interpreters when required.


The January 2014 report includes a graph showing how Capita have done recruiting interpreters between October 2012 and November 2013

While Capita have managed to triple the number of Tier 3 interpreters, and double the number of Tier 2 interpreters, the number of the best qualified Tier 1 interpreters has only increase by less than one fifth (17%). Perhaps due to the ongoing boycott by the best interpreters, perhaps due to a policy of using lowest cost interpreters regardless of their qualifications.

Cuts in the Justice System don't only affect defendants. Cuts to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have meant prosecutors have been unable to pursue cases properly. According to a report by the Bureau of Investigation, Michael Turner QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said:

‘the supposed budget cuts have resulted in no savings at all for the criminal justice system. At the end of the day if weaknesses are leading to breakdowns and re-trials then the tax payer ends up spending more money in the long run.’

‘If your case is in the lime-light you’ll get the best silks [barristers] rolled out for you…if not then there’s a chance your case will go to those who are simply not equipped to prosecute the trial properly.’

Justice denied one person is justice escaped by another. Once the cops have got a conviction for a mugging or burglary they aren't likely to look any further. The "vast majority of voters" will hopefully bear this in mind.

*************************************************************
According to the Capita "Interpreter Handbook" interpreters are classed according to their skills and qualifications, with Capita paying a lower rate for the less well qualified:

Tier 1 - the highest level, requiring one or more of the following:

• Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Public Service Interpreting , DPSI, (English Law Option)
• Chartered Institute of Linguists Certificate in Community Interpreting , CCI ( the forerunner to the DPSI)
• Metropolitan Police Test (post 1997) together with either a DPSI (Health or Local Government Option) or an Honours Degree or higher in Interpreting

 Tier 2 - the medium level:

• ‘Partial DPSI’ ( English Law Option) i.e. the interpreter must have passed all modules with the exception of written translation (component 3b ( written translation in English).
• A degree in linguistics, English philology, Modern Languages or MA in Teaching of English, or other language related

 Tier 3 - the lowest level:

• Demonstrable experience in the public sector with appropriate linguistic background; 
• Formalised basic interpreter training including one of the following: The WEA Programmes, Bi-Lingual Skills Certificates and Community Level Interpreting Degrees under the NVQ certification system

 

Read More

Graphs at a glance: Government policy of cutting the cost of Justice risks denying justice for the innocent and the guilty

Being beastly to foreigners seems to be back in vogue. At least to foreigners without much money. In its pursuit of popularity the Tory Party proposed stopping printing welfare leaflets in foreign languages and stop providing translators at benefits offices for those who don't speak English.


According to an un-named 'Tory insider' quoted by the Daily Mail, "The vast majority of voters will think this idea is plain common sense. It is unreasonable to expect taxpayers to spend huge sums on translators when people should be learning to read and write English."

Maybe the Tory insider is right about voters, maybe not. Either way, denying poor foreigners their legal right to benefits by putting up a language barrier won't really affect the "vast majority of voters". On the other hand, the government's ongoing outsourcing of providing interprepters for the Justice System will. Impairing foreigners' access to good interpreters when they appear in courts and police stations will affect all of us. Those voters who care little whether an innocent foreigner gets an undeserved punishment should remember: when the innocent get punished for a crime they did not commit the guilty who did commit the crime get away to offend again.


A report by the National Audit Office in January 2014 took another look at the performance of the Ministry of Justice's attempt at outsourcing the provision of interpreters to the justice system. 

The Ministry of Justice had earlier been scolded by Parliament's Justice Committee and the National Audit Office for the calamitous performance of this outsourcing arrangement. A key element in this outsourcing cockup was Capita (the outsourcer) slashing the rates of pay of interpreters. This pay-slash caused a boycott by the best qualified (Tier 1) interpreters, resulting in an unacceptable level of Capita's failure to provide suitable interpreters when required.


The January 2014 report includes a graph showing how Capita have done recruiting interpreters between October 2012 and November 2013

While Capita have managed to triple the number of Tier 3 interpreters, and double the number of Tier 2 interpreters, the number of the best qualified Tier 1 interpreters has only increase by less than one fifth (17%). Perhaps due to the ongoing boycott by the best interpreters, perhaps due to a policy of using lowest cost interpreters regardless of their qualifications.

Cuts in the Justice System don't only affect defendants. Cuts to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have meant prosecutors have been unable to pursue cases properly. According to a report by the Bureau of Investigation, Michael Turner QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said:

‘the supposed budget cuts have resulted in no savings at all for the criminal justice system. At the end of the day if weaknesses are leading to breakdowns and re-trials then the tax payer ends up spending more money in the long run.’

‘If your case is in the lime-light you’ll get the best silks [barristers] rolled out for you…if not then there’s a chance your case will go to those who are simply not equipped to prosecute the trial properly.’

Justice denied one person is justice escaped by another. Once the cops have got a conviction for a mugging or burglary they aren't likely to look any further. The "vast majority of voters" will hopefully bear this in mind.

*************************************************************
According to the Capita "Interpreter Handbook" interpreters are classed according to their skills and qualifications, with Capita paying a lower rate for the less well qualified:

Tier 1 - the highest level, requiring one or more of the following:

• Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Public Service Interpreting , DPSI, (English Law Option)
• Chartered Institute of Linguists Certificate in Community Interpreting , CCI ( the forerunner to the DPSI)
• Metropolitan Police Test (post 1997) together with either a DPSI (Health or Local Government Option) or an Honours Degree or higher in Interpreting

 Tier 2 - the medium level:

• ‘Partial DPSI’ ( English Law Option) i.e. the interpreter must have passed all modules with the exception of written translation (component 3b ( written translation in English).
• A degree in linguistics, English philology, Modern Languages or MA in Teaching of English, or other language related

 Tier 3 - the lowest level:

• Demonstrable experience in the public sector with appropriate linguistic background; 
• Formalised basic interpreter training including one of the following: The WEA Programmes, Bi-Lingual Skills Certificates and Community Level Interpreting Degrees under the NVQ certification system

 

Read More

BIJ Story: Crown Prosecution Service criticised for ‘wilful, calculated and prolonged disobedience’ in trial

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that cuts in staffing and funding at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is resulting in prosecutions being thrown out of court.

January 14, 2014 by Maeve McClenaghan (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

The Crown Prosecution Service has once again come under fire by a top judge for failing to prepare properly for a serious trial, and for citing financial constraints as the reason for that failure.

The judge told the court that the case ‘raises serious issues about the practice of the CPS in cases where complex evidence is involved,’ and called the CPS’s actions ‘completely unacceptable’.

Recently published court records reveal that judge Peter Murphy was forced to throw out a trial for conspiracy to supply class A drugs just two days in to proceedings, after the CPS failed to prepare properly, claiming that submitting certain evidence would have a negative financial impact.

The judge’s comments are part of growing criticism of the CPS, as uncovered by the Bureau last year.

A six month investigation by the Bureau found that budget cuts had led to the CPS losing 23% of its barristers (202), 22% of its solicitors (518) and 27% (296) of its higher court advocates.

That loss in staff correlated with an increase in the rate at which homicide trials failed because the CPS provided insufficient or no evidence after a not guilty plea. This was equivalent to one in twenty homicide cases and represented a rise of 50% compared with 2010. The rate at which the CPS offers ‘no evidence’ had also risen for burglary, robbery, fraud and forgery, and criminal damage trials.

Related article: New figures reveal the CPS has lost more than 20% of its legal teams


The Bureau’s research found one senior judge describing the CPS’s performance as a ‘disgrace’, another as ‘a lamentable state of affairs’ and a third told the CPS that the court would ‘not put up with this kind of disdain’.

Now it seems the problems continue, as last November, in Blackfriars crown court, the serious drugs trial collapsed after the prosecution failed to serve the court with the evidence it intended to rely on, and then decided to give up its attempts to prosecute.

Without hearing all the evidence the judge acquitted the three defendants and they were released.

All evidence to be used in a trial must be served to the court so that both sides have a chance to review it before it is called on. In this instance the CPS wanted to introduce, what it described as a summarised version of complex raw data which had already been handed over to the defence. The judge called this ‘completely unacceptable’.

The CPS had been instructed to provide all the evidence it planned to argue on, two months before the start of the trial date. It failed to do this and applied to provide a summarised version. Murphy said this showed ‘wilful, calculated and prolonged disobedience’ on the part of the CPS.

Judge Murphy told the court: ‘What is disturbing about this is that I was told very candidly that the application by the Crown was being made primarily on financial grounds. If I am understanding that correctly, I think it means that there are financial implications in serving a large number of pages of evidence that then have to be reviewed by defence counsel.’

He went on to comment that ‘it is in my view quite wrong for [financial] considerations to stand in the way of the Crown properly complying with its disclosure obligations.’

After being told it could not submit any new evidence the CPS’s barrister Mr E. Connell told the court he would therefore offer no evidence against the defendants, effectively giving up the Crown’s attempt to prosecute.
A CPS spokesperson told the Bureau, ‘The CPS does not make a decision to discontinue or proceed with a case based on cost considerations alone. The Code for Crown Prosecutors, which lays out the principles according to which every decision to bring a prosecution must be made, states that factors relevant to the public interest of any prosecution include consideration of the cost to the CPS and the wider criminal justice system where it could be regarded as excessive when weighed against any likely penalty. This however is never a deciding factor on its own.

‘The CPS takes the Judge Peter Murphy’s comments extremely seriously and it is evident that there were problems in the way disclosure was handled in this case. Accordingly, we are reviewing the case to see what lessons can be learned from it for the future.’

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Are we being overcharged by up to £4bn? OFGEM, the energy regulator, says they have no idea

But Chris, KJ and Fee think they do...

SOURCE TELEGRAPH: Energy costs 'deliberately inflated' by £150 per householdThe so-called Big Six, British Gas, SSE, E.ON, EDF, npower, and Scottish Power, paid £4bn more for power than market rate, according to shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint. She accused the companies of paying over the odds to increase profits in other divisions of their companies or doing deals that were bad for customers. She added: "The time has come for a complete overhaul of our energy market. Labour will break up the big energy companies, put an end to the secret deals and force them to do all of their trading on the open market." Energy UK, which represents the big six suppliers, disputed the figures.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

Labour exposes OFGEM’s failure to stop the Big 6 energy firm rip-off. Why didn’t they do that when they were in power?

Graphs at a glance: Study shows fewer than 1 in 10 members of the public trust or regard as ethical banks and energy companies

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

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

What Miliband and Cameron surely know already: how the energy firms hide their profits

 

Read More

Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 23rd January)

Former head of bank regulation says growth is thanks to too much borrowing, of the kind that caused the bust

The former head of the Financial Service Authority, Lord Turner, has compared Britain's rapidly recovering economy with the "hair of the dog" treatment for a hangover. Turner, who was on the shortlist to be governor of the Bank of England before Mark Carney was chosen for the job, told an HSBC breakfast that the economy had reverted to its pre-crisis model of growth. He said: "We have spent the last few years talking about the need to rebalance the economy away from a focus on property and financial services and towards investment and exports. We are now back to growth without any rebalancing at all." GUARDIAN

Osborne backs minimum wage rise to £7 an hour

Chancellor George Osborne has acted to try to outflank Ed Miliband over the cost-of-living issue by calling for a dramatic increase in the national minimum wage to restore it to its pre-recession value. Osborne has thrown his weight behind a proposal that would raise the minimum wage from £6.31 to £7 an hour from October 2014 – seven months before the general election. The chancellor said he believed businesses would be able to absorb the increase, now that the economy was growing again. GUARDIAN

Cap on rip-off pension fees 'shelved for at least a year'

Government plans to cap charges on workplace pensions will be delayed for at least a year, it emerged last night. The cap on charges above 0.75 per cent was meant to be introduced in April and intended to protect millions of workers being automatically enrolled into company pensions from paying high fees. The original plan first announced in October and dubbed a “full frontal assault” on pension charges, set out options including an outright ban on fees higher than 0.75 per cent, or 1 per cent for savers automatically enrolled in a workplace pension. Groups which had campaigned against high charges said news of the delay was a blow to millions of savers. The industry has furiously lobbied ministers to drop or delay the policy, warning that the government was “creating hugely significant practical and operational risk” for its auto-enrolment pensions programme by introducing the cap. TELEGRAPH

Ofgem accuses Npower of 'misleading' report on power costs

A report by power supplier Npower, claiming bills will rise due to higher energy distribution costs, has been dismissed by regulator Ofgem as "misleading". Npower, one of the UK's big six suppliers, said the report was designed to "shine a light" on company costs. In it, the company argues that energy suppliers make small profits and have little control over customer bills. In response to Ofgem, Npower corrected its figures and cut its projections for increased network costs. Ofgem said it was pleased npower had changed its numbers downwards but still questioned whether the energy company had yet got it right. GUARDIAN

Goldman Sachs plots a way round EU bonus cap

Goldman Sachs is devising ways to hand its highly-paid bankers a third element to pay in response to the EU's bonus cap, which prevents bonuses of more than 100% of salary being paid out, unless shareholders specifically approve 200%. Goldman Sachs’ 32,900 staff on average received pay of $383,000 (£233,000) in 2013. As a result of the cap, banks such as Barclays and HSBC are preparing to make additional awards of shares to staff which do not count as salary or bonuses. GUARDIAN

G4S’s Oakwood prison disorder was full-scale riot, reveals officer

A disturbance at a jail described as an incident of "concerted indiscipline" by authorities was in fact a "full-scale riot", an unnamed prison officer has revealed. Describing the situation, he said:"Wires had been strung as tripwires at leg level and at chest and neck level as well, to try and prevent us from moving in an orderly fashion down the wing and sort of break us as we went through... I would sum it up as a full-scale prison riot and we were very lucky that it only took place on one unit and didn't spread." G4S, which runs the prison, said about 15 to 20 prisoners were involved. But the officer, who went inside to tackle the violence, told the BBC many more inmates had been involved and they took over an entire wing of the jail. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said the site, which has space for 1,600 inmates, is meant to be the blueprint for future prisons. But last year Oakwood was given the lowest performance rating possible by the Ministry of Justice. BBC NEWS

Yet another mis-selling scandal? Recruitment agencies face probe over flogging workers useless insurance to protect against pay falls

Six employment companies stand accused of misleading workers into buying personal accident cover they did not need. The companies named are Blue Arrow, Staffline, Acorn, Taskmaster, Randstad and Meridian, which together employ over 100,000 workers. The firms sold the insurance at a profit even though workers did not need it as they were already covered by their employers. Business Secretary Vince Cable described the practice as indefensible and possibly illegal. He told MPs the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills would investigate the companies and did not rule out a broader inquiry into the practice. DAILY MAIL

Emails reveal UK government helped shale gas industry manage fracking opposition

Shale gas executives and government officials collaborated in private to manage the British public's hostility to fracking, emails released under freedom of information rules reveal. Officials shared pre-prepared statements with the industry last year before major announcements and hosted high-level dinners with "further discussion over post-dinner drinks", while the industry shared long lists of "stakeholders" to be targeted. Critics said the government was acting as an arm of the gas industry" and was guilty of cheerleading, but officials said facilitating discussions was "right and proper". GUARDIAN

Record levels of young adults living at home, says ONS

The number of young adults living with their parents has increased by a quarter since records began in 1996, caused by high house prices and growing youth unemployment. A total of 3.3 million 20- to 34-year-olds lived with their parents in 2013. This is despite the proportion of the population aged between 20 and 34 remaining broadly the same. Between April and June 2008, 13% of the economically active population aged 18-24 was unemployed, a figure that had increased to 19% by the same period of 2013. The ONS said that in 1996, the typical first-time buyer had to raise 2.7 times their salary to afford to buy a home, but by 2013 the figure stood at 4.47. GUARDIAN

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Benefits are so high they disincentivise working? Even a minimum wage job for one adult in a two-parent two-child household makes you £138/week better off than benefits

SOURCES:

Benefit and Tax Credit fraud = £1.6bn
UK government figures for 2012 estimate benefits overpaid due to fraud is £1.2 billion and tax credit fraud is £380 million. So just under £1.6 billion in total; less than 1% of the overall benefits and tax credits expenditure and less than benefits underpaid and overpaid due to error.

All UK fraud = £73bn
The UK government estimates that total fraud (public, private and business) across the whole of the economy amounts to £73 billion a year.
SOURCE: HM Government National Fraud Authority

Tax dodging = £120bn
HMRC estimate for tax evasion and "aggressive" avoidance = £30bn+
Tax Research UK says this is a gross underestimate, and puts the figure at £120bn
SOURCE: Tax Research UK

YouGov poll conducted for the TUC: "Only 21 per cent of people think that this family with two school-age children would be better off if one of the unemployed parents got a 30 hour a week minimum wage job, even though they would actually end up £138 a week better off. Even those who thought they would be better off only thought on average they would gain by £59."

OUR RELATED STORIES:

New Year Message: Time to stop ordinary Britons being subtly divided by mistrust of ordinary Britons

Graphs at a glance: 9,836 prosecutions for benefit fraud v 617 for tax fraud. Yet benefit fraud costs us a fraction of tax fraud

Graphs at a glance: See how local authority cuts have hit the poorest areas first and hardest

Graphs at a glance: What's your age and where do you work? See your chances of being low paid

UK regional map showing where 1 in 5 adults are in "excessive debt". The vast majority of them are working "strivers"

The Top 1% pay more income tax? ‘cos their income’s doubled since 1995 whilst bottom 90%'s has stagnated

Global corporate and super-rich tax dodging in numbers (and a cool animation)

It's NOT good capitalism when one company pays its taxes and its rival dodges them

Read More

Graphs at a glance: Whose afraid of affordable housing in London? London councils take money from developers in lieu of affordable houses.

George Osborne’s championing a rise in the minimum wage is like the Big Bad Wolf championing better straw for little pigs' houses. Will his earnest “little pig, little pig, we’re all in it together!” convince us he is not a heartless cad after all? Or will we suspect the motivation for his sudden change of mind on this minimum pay increase? On the 10^thJanuary Osborne said it would be self defeating and job destroying, then on 16^thJanuary he said with a purr

"I want to make sure we are all in it together, as part of the recovery, which is why I want to see above-inflation increases in the minimum wage, precisely because the British economy can now afford that."

Did a Special Adviser remind him about elections? This appeal from Osborne for a higher minimum wage is of course not aimed at winning over people on minimum wages. George has already huffed and puffed and blown all their housing benefits down. This is aimed at those of us who are beginning to feel a little C-sick over cuts to pensions, pay, benefits, jobs and public services squarely aimed at the less well off. As Mervyn King said when he was Governor of the Bank of England

"The price of this financial crisis is being borne by people who absolutely did not cause it…..Now is the period when the cost is being paid, I'm surprised that the degree of public anger has not been greater than it has."

Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, in evidence to the UK Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee, March 2011.

Of course, it is unfair of us to compare Osborne to the big bad wolf. Let me say that now before the complaints come tweeting in from wolf lovers across the globe. All the wolf wanted was a meal, while Conservative Party policy is after much more than that.

Tory policies on benefits caps and bedroom tax seem designed to drive unsuitable people from suitable areas. According to Shelter, the housing charity, the way people are kept below the overall benefits cap is cutting housing benefit.

“Housing benefit will be reduced to prevent the total benefits received going above these limits.”

The effect of which is to push them out of their homes.

However, it is not enough to drive away all the unsuitable people from the suitable places. What about getting rid of the unsuitable properties? A report by Westminster Council shows the difference in expectations is between the well-heeled and the down-at-heel when it comes to the size of their gaffs. 

The Westminster report states a ‘Social’ 2 bedroom flat is 750 square feet, while a private ‘Society’ 2 bedroom flat is 1,200 square feet. A ‘Social’ five bedroom house, at 1,760 square feet, is smaller than a ‘Society’ three bedroom flat. And you can fit twenty one ‘Social’ one bedroom flats into a single ‘Society’ five bedroom house.

Now this is not just a question of ghastly neighbours. Think of the ghastly voters! Imagine the effect on 50 years of uninterrupted Tory held councils in Westminster of having 21 poor families voting from their one bedroom flats when you could have one wealthy family’s votes from their 5 bedroomed residence. The thought alone would jangle any numerate Tory's boodle.

The National Planning Policy Framework is very clear that local planning authorities should include 'affordable housing' in their developments. The Framework states that they must

"use their evidence base to ensure that their Local Plan meets the full, objectively assessed needs for market and affordable housing in the housing market area.."

So, apparently affordable housing should be included in the planning process. However, read on and you will find the get-out “unless” clause

"unless off-site provision or a financial contribution of broadly equivalent value can be robustly justified"

A Freedom of Information request by the Bureau of Investigation found that three London councils have been making extensive use of this pay-off option: Tory Westminster, the City of London and pretty solidly Labour Southwark council.

Perhaps we are being unfair, and it is the nature of big cities that their centres aren't appropriate for the poor for some complex reason. And the poor would actually be better off in a more far away location. However, the Bureau of Investigation's investigation reveals that other big cities in the UK do not find this an issue. Payoffs in these other cities barely register.

 

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Academies caught paying millions of taxpayer money in fees to firms owned by the school directors and trustees

KJ, Chris and Fee get to the heart of the public/private debate...

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Revealed: taxpayer-funded academies paying millions to private firms
Taxpayer-funded academy chains have paid millions of pounds into the private businesses of directors, trustees and their relatives, documents obtained from freedom of information requests show. The payments have been made for a wide range of services including consultancy fees, curriculums, IT advice and equipment, travel, expenses and legal services by at least nine academy chains. Critics fear that the Department for Education (DfE) is not closely monitoring the circulation of public money from academies to private firms. Since 2010 more than 3,444 schools – including more than half of secondary schools – have taken on academy or free school status.

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Liebrary: PFI saves us virtually nothing, if you believe the NAO’s figures. If you believe the Commons Treasury Committee, it costs us a vast amount that nobody has yet quantified. Top two are Health and Education

Graphs at a glance: see which government departments spend more than half their total staffing budget on consultants: it's outsourcing in all but name. Top three are Treasury, Transport and Education

Graphs at a glance - School class sizes in England are among the largest in the OECD

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