Graphs at a glance: "Pension Schemes Bill" legislation makes it easier for companies to jettison retired staff

In June 2014 Parliament started debating a key change to the nation's pensions, the "Pension Schemes Bill". According to the Department of Works and Pensions' press release, "Public backing means full steam ahead for pension reforms".As it apparently already has your backing, dear fellow ripped-off Britons, we thought you should know more about what you are so keen on. The proposed legislation includes worrying provisions relating to independent trustees, indexation, and more. But for the purpose of this post, we shall focus on the "new" type...

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Police to re-consider investigating Wonga for sending bullying letters from fake solicitors to 45,000 customers

Fee, KJ and Chris do some maths...SOURCE DAILY MAIL: Why isn't Wonga in the dock? Fury at payday lender over bogus legal letters used to bully debtorsBritain’s biggest payday lender was yesterday named and shamed by the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority. The FCA ordered it to pay more than £2.6million in compensation to 45,000 customers who received the bogus letters. But consumer groups say there is clear evidence of a criminal deception and insist the police should be brought in. While the company presents itself as the...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 26th June)

Barclays shares fall 6.5% on new fraud accusationThe New York attorney general has filed a fraud lawsuit against Barclays. The lawsuit alleges the bank falsified documents and misrepresented benefits it was offering to big institutional clients, including pension funds. It relates to the bank's "dark pool" trading operations, which allow clients to trade large blocks of shares while keeping prices private. Barclays has begun an internal probe into the allegations. In an email to staff, Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins said: "I will not tolerate...

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Fat Cat Football: Why German football is superior to English, on and off the field

Germany has much lower ticket pricesGerman clubs are owned by their fansGerman clubs depend on sponsorship, not high ticket pricesGerman clubs think long-termGermany has much lower ticket pricesTicket prices are low in the Bundesliga: the average price for the cheapest tickets is just over £10. In the Premier League, fans pay upwards of £28 for the cheapest tickets.At Bayern Munich, you can get in (albeit to stand) for £12. Contrast those prices with £30 at the cheap end in Manchester United.For a season ticket, it averages £207 in Germany's top-flight...

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NHS tops world healthcare table, and is second most cost-efficient. So why the cuts?!

SOURCE TELEGRAPH: Britain's NHS is the world's best health-care system, says reportThe NHS has been declared the world's best healthcare system by an international panel of experts who rated its care superior to countries which spend far more on health. The same study also castigated healthcare provision in the US as the worst globally. Despite putting the most money into health, America denies care to many patients in need because they do not have health insurance and is also the poorest at saving the lives of people who fall ill, it found. Furthermore,...

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Graphs at a glance: Interest rates rising? Whether they go up or down, we are the losers.

The Governor of the Bank of England has said the official Bank Rate, commonly known as the Base Rate of interest, is going to go up sooner than we think. The Bank of England website explains what this official rate is for:“The Bank of England sets an interest rate at which it lends to financial institutions. This interest rate then affects the whole range of interest rates set by commercial banks, building societies and other institutions for their own savers and borrowers.” In 2009, in order to assist recovery from the banking crash,...

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Another tragic performance at a World Cup. Is it our overpaid players? No grassroots investment?

Chris and KJ look to the German model...OUR RELATED STORIES:Fat Cat Football: Why German football is superior to British, on and off the fieldRunaway Premier League football wages are damaging the national gameWho needs fat cat pay? The Germans don't. See the comparison with the...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 19th June)

NHS is the world's best healthcare system, says international panel of expertsThe NHS has been declared the world's best healthcare system by an international panel of experts who rated its care superior to countries which spend far more on health. The same study also castigated healthcare provision in the US as the worst globally. Despite putting the most money into health, America denies care to many patients in need because they do not have health insurance and is also the poorest at saving the lives of people who fall ill, it found. Furthermore,...

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Cuts mean prisoners kill themselves or opt for punishment blocks to escape overcrowding, says Chief Inspector of Prisons

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Prisons face overcrowding due to policy failure, says watchdog   The chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, issued a stark warning that cuts had left the system so stretched that more inmates were killing themselves or getting deliberately sent to punishment blocks to escape crowded conditions. The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, rejected the criticisms, insisting the number of assaults and cases of self harm were falling and that 2,000 extra prison places were being built. He conceded the government had been taken...

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See the effect of badly planned cost cutting in the NHS, Military, Home Office, DWP etc. Britain is choking on a diet of austerity

Remember those ‘diet breads’: 25% fewer calories per slice? Achieved by 25% smaller slices? Outsourcing companies have used the same ruse to win vast government contracts. Promising great savings (slimming down), achieved by employing fewer and less qualified people and paying them less (less bread). Diet breads charged you more to give you less.You risk your health if you don’t understand this. The Tories didn't understand (or perhaps more shamefully, they did). Their fetish for slimming down the Public Sector is proving to be more than unhealthy...

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