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

Legal aid cuts are forcing domestic abuse victims to be cross-examined by their attackers

The justice system’s treatment of victims of domestic violence has become a politically charged issue. The Ministry of Justice says all victims are entitled to legal aid to help them “break free from abusive relationships”. But according to research by Citizens Advice, victims of domestic abuse increasingly face being cross-examined by their attackers because legal aid cuts make it difficult to qualify for courtroom representation. The report says: “In some cases these restrictions expose victims to risk, leaving no alternative but to represent themselves in court facing their perpetrator.” A fifth of Citizens Advice advisers reported that they could no longer help as many domestic abuse clients as before. A similar proportion found that most domestic abuse clients were unable to afford the required contributions when offered legal aid. One major flaw in the system is that many women cannot access money needed to pay for their contribution, because they have fled their home and their assets are part-owned by their abuser. It quotes one victim as saying: “I’ve had to face my violent ex-partner in court twice now, and will have to continue to do so as I simply cannot afford costs.” Gillian Guy, the chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Domestic abuse victims must not be a test case for downsizing justice... The government’s assurance that it will protect access to legal aid for domestic abuse victims is not standing up”. GUARDIAN

Almost 700,000 people in UK have zero-hours contract as main job

The rise - 100,000 on a year ago - is likely to trigger renewed debate over the widespread use of contracts that offer no guarantee of hours and only those benefits guaranteed by law, such as holiday pay. It represents 2.3% of all people in employment. Overall, because workers often have more than one job official figures showed the number of individual employment contracts offering no minimum hours jumped from 1.4m in 2013, to 1.8m last year. The ONS said the 28% increase was not so much the result of a surge in the number of zero-hours jobs last year, but due more to staff realising that they were on these contracts, due to the increased publicity about employment terms. Some of Britain’s largest employers offer zero-hours contracts to employees. High street giants such as JD Wetherspoon, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Sports Direct and McDonald’s all use the deals. Buckingham Palace has offered the contracts to staff working in the summer when the Queen’s main residence is open to the public. The ONS said over half of businesses in the hotel and catering sectors used the contracts and a quarter of businesses in education made some use of no-guaranteed-hours contracts in August 2014. Universities and colleges have become large-scale users of zero-hours contracts, while an estimated 160,000 care staff are also on similar deals. A report in the Daily Mail earlier this month found that scores of MPs from all major parties were found to be offering zero-hours contracts to researchers and other temporary staff. Based on a series of freedom of information requests, the newspaper also found several Labour-run councils offering zero-hours contracts. Around a third of people on them want more hours, the ONS added, saying people on zero-hours deals are more likely to be women, students in full-time education or working part-time. They are also more likely to be aged under 25, or 65 and over. GUARDIAN

Number of new homes built last year was less than half the figure needed to keep pace with demand

Official figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government showed that 118,760 homes were completed during the year, an increase of 8% on the previous year but far below the 250,000 most experts say are needed to begin to tackle the country’s housing crisis. Quarterly figures showed the number of new houses started was down by 39% on the peak hit in March 2007, while completions were down by 26% on the same period. Experts warned that the failure to build more homes would be “felt for generations to come” and push house prices further out of reach of aspiring homeowners. Even before the credit crunch building was failing to keep up with growing demand, but since then the gap has become bigger. Henry Gregg of the National Housing Federation said: “With building numbers below half what is needed, we’re creating a housing shortage that will be felt for generations to come. Every year the country fails to build enough homes is another year that aspiring homeowners are priced out, young people are trapped in childhood bedrooms and families struggle with high rents.” Campbell Robb, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said it was shocking how few homes were being built. “What’s even more worrying is that the number of new affordable homes started has fallen dramatically in the last three months,” he said. “Piecemeal schemes like Help-to-buy are only papering over the cracks. With the general election around the corner and housing one of voters’ top concerns, it’s time for politicians to stop just talking about the issue and finally commit to building the affordable homes we so desperately need.” GUARDIAN

People in need at risk of losing tax credits after being wrongly accused of cheating

Thousands of people on low incomes are being sent letters by an American outsourcing company accusing them of cheating on their tax credits and warning them that they may have their benefits stopped. Concentrix, part of a multi-billion pound US business services company, has been accused of going on a vast “fishing expedition” as part of a controversial contract with HM Revenue and Customs to outsource its fraud and error detection. Staff working at Concentrix have told The Independent that they are under pressure to open between 40 and 50 new tax-credit investigations every day and often don’t have time to check whether the allegations they are making stack up. Meanwhile, worried claimants have been taking to internet message forums to ask for advice for dealing with the false allegations being made against them. Many said they believed the letters to be hoaxes as they asked for personal financial information such as bank and mortgage statements to be sent to the company within 30 days. Those who ignore the letters risk having their tax credits halted. Staff at Concentrix’s office in Belfast, where the contract is based, have told The Independent that they haven’t been given enough training to differentiate between genuine claims for tax credits and fraudulent ones. They also say they are being encouraged to hit a target of making 20 decisions a day, or about three an hour, on whether to stop, amend or leave a tax claim unchanged. One worker on Concentrix’s tax-credit contract, who asked not to be named, said that in his own estimate about six in 10 investigations into people suspected of not declaring that they’re living with a partner are opened in error. INDEPENDENT

RAC says £100m in private parking penalties 'charged illegally'

The RAC report was compiled by barrister John de Waal QC, who said parking companies were levying charges on drivers which were disproportionate to the losses suffered by landowners as a result of motorists' actions. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 banned clamping, towing, blocking-in or immobilising a vehicle without lawful authority on private land, in a bid to end abuses by rogue clamping firms. However, the RAC foundation said that private car parks were now using overstay penalty charges as an alternative, with a system of ticketing which was "barely regulated". Drivers who stay longer than the time they have paid for may receive tickets demanding payments of up to £100, and significantly more in some cases, it said. It cited the case of a woman from High Wycombe who, in 2014, had been penalty charged £100 for overstaying in a car park which cost 20p per hour. It said when parking signs were not clear or prominently displayed, the charge could also be challenged on the grounds of unfairness. RAC director Professor Stephen Glaister estimated overcharging in private parking penalties may have reached £100m in 2013, and said millions of drivers could be due a refund. He also said a case coming to the Court of Appeal next week, regarding a motorist who is contesting an £85 penalty charge, could establish a precedent in law if the motorist wins, meaning others could have a case to get money repaid. BBC NEWS

Cost of childcare so high that it does not pay UK families to work

It now costs around £115.45 on average to send a child aged under two to nursery for 25 hours a week in Britain, a total of £6,003 per year. This is a 5.1% increase on last year. The cost of sending a toddler to nursery part-time has risen by around a third over the past five years, with parents now forced to pay an average of £6,000 a year – £1,533 more than in 2010. Despite heavy government spending on childcare, gaps in provision are also increasing, the survey found. In addition, for the first time, Britain’s poorest families are having to find substantial sums to make up the shortfall between part-time childcare costs and the maximum amount of help they can claim under working tax credits. “The reality is that for too many families it simply does not pay to work,” concluded the Family and Childcare Trust in their annual Childcare Costs Survey 2015. For the first time outside of London, some parents on the lowest incomes are finding that the maximum amount of help they can claim for childcare is leaving them out of pocket by at least £52.50 a week. The report suggests that there are two reasons for the increases in prices for under-twos: in England, nurseries and childminders are putting up their prices after keeping them down during the recession, and parents are subsidising the government’s free places for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The survey also found that the problem of insufficient childcare provision is getting worse not better, with just 43% of councils in England fulfilling their legal obligation to provide childcare for working parents, compared with 54% last year. The report suggests three reasons for the fall in supply over the past year: 382,000 women returned to work between September to November last year, while places for older children may have been eroded at the expense of the increased number of places for two-year-olds in general, and those two-year-old children who qualify for free early education in particular. A Department for Education spokesman said the report “neglects the record amount of fully funded childcare we are giving. Based on the FCT’s own figures, our free entitlement will save the average eligible family £2,500 per year for each child.” GUARDIAN

Church of England pays some workers below living wage

The Church of England pays some staff less than the living wage - despite calling on employers to pay at least that amount - it has been revealed. The living wage, calculated from the basic cost of UK life, is currently £7.85 an hour outside London. But the Sun newspaper reports a Church job advertised at £6.50 an hour - something an MP called "astonishing". The Church said each parish, diocese and cathedral was a separate legal entity which made its own decisions. According to the Sun, Canterbury Cathedral advertised for a kiosk assistant to be paid £6.70 an hour. The £6.50 advertisement was for "waiting-on staff" at Lichfield Cathedral. In a statement, the Church of England said it was made of independent parts but added: "The vast majority of those employed by or sub-contracted to the central institutions are already paid at least the living wage and all will be by April 2017. "The Diocese of Canterbury and the Pensions Board of the Church of England are committed to moving to paying the living wage and hope to be at that point within the next 2 years. As charities both institutions require time to increase giving levels prior to ensuring delivery of the living wage." BBC NEWS

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Now it’s Rifkind and Straw: How many of our “cash for access” legislators are selling out the national interest?

SOURCE DAILY MAIL: MPs' salary of £67,000 is not enough for the standard of living I'm ENTITLED to, says Tory Sir Malcolm Rifkind as he defends his second jobs after 'cash for access' sting

Labour’s Jack Straw and the Tories’ Sir Malcolm Rifkind were secretly filmed discussing how they could use their contacts to benefit a private Chinese company and both boasted about charging at least £5,000-a-day. In the conversation with the undercover reporters Sir Malcolm was filmed discussing that his usual fee was 'somewhere in the region of £5,000 to £8,000' for half a day's work. Straw told undercover reporters he would expect £5,000 per day. MPs earn £67,060-a-year, but Sir Malcolm claimed this was not enough for someone of his professional background. Challenged about why he does not do voluntary work to provide experience of the world outside politics, Sir Malcolm told BBC Two's Daily Politics: 'I have two objectives, I have to have that broader hinterland as you so nicely describe it, but I do also want to have the standard of living that my professional background would normally entitle me to have.' Defending his position, Sir Malcolm said there were 'about 200' MPs who had business interests and insisted many members of the public did not want 'full-time politicians'. He said that 'many ex-ministers, former chancellors, home secretaries, prime ministers, as well as other people, have served on advisory boards' and insisted it was 'entirely proper'. Jack Straw, the Blackburn MP, told how he had used his influence to change EU rules on behalf of a private company he already works for and declares an interest in. He also claimed to have used 'charm and menace' to persuade the Ukrainian prime minister to change laws on behalf of the commodity firm, which pays him £60,000 a year. Mr Straw, 68, said he would not take on the role while he remained an MP, but could be more helpful if he were to become a peer in the House of Lords after the election.

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Left to ourselves the plurality of Brits don't vote. The Church of England bishops' letter will help get more of us out to the polling station.

Some of our readers complain that we at Ripped-off Britons are always being negative. It's not true! We once wrote a piece explaining why we should love estate agents. And we ran another piece urging people not to be beastly to bankers. 

This time we speak positively of Church of England bishops and their letter for the General Election 2015.

Taking a sideways glance at data can be revealing. A report from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides a key insight into us Brits, apart from all the stuff about food standards. It's one of our most endearing and most infuriating characteristics: if we aren't reminded that we are annoyed, we forget to be. 

This is a good thing in general, but not in a general election.

Henry V, according to Shakespeare, knew it. To get his army to defeat the French at the siege of Harfleur in 1415, Henry knew it wasn't enough to simply point out the city walls. Henry had to work his soldiers up into a froth: 

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English."

It takes quite a bit of stirring before we Britons will stiffen the sinews and give someone a hard stare. We need a heavy hint even to complain about our food: The Food Standards Agency's study asked a set of questions twice:

• First time: Spontaneous, unprompted, "Is there anything you are concerned about?"

• Second time: Prompted, "What are you concerned about from this list of issues? Food prices; Food waste; Sugar; Salt; etc."

For example, food prices:

• First time: Asked what food issues in general were of concern, only 14% of responders spontaneously said they were worried about food prices.

• Second time: Asked specifically whether they were worried about food prices, 50% of responders said they were worried.

As you can see from the above graph, people weren't spontaneously particularly worried about sugar, salt, fat, or animal welfare. But when asked specifically about sugar, salt, fat, or animal welfare between 40% and 50% were indeed worried. Unprompted over half the people questioned had no concerns at all, falling to only 14% completely unconcerned when asked about specific issues.

Specific blasts of irritation tend to blow in our ears at the wrong time when there isn't anything we can do about it. There's no point you flaring your nostrils when the receptionist at your GP says there aren't any appointments left. You know he can't see your nasal gesturing over the phone. Why bother raging at the self-service ticket machine when you discover an off-peak one day London travelcard went up 34%, from £8.90 to £12 in January 2015? I can tell you, the machine didn't care.

By the time you actually can do something at an election, the rage is less than a distant memory. The urge to complain has faded.



The Church of England Bishops hoped to remind us of some issues with their letter, following the well trodden Pauline (and Caroline) path of writing epistles to influence policy (St Paul's were much snappier, as we hope were Prince Charles'). The Bishops' 56 page(!) letter in February 2015 , followed by an 11 page explanation of the 56 pages, raises a medley of things for us to get exercised by one way or the other:

• Our political culture, parties and democracy
• The role of the state
• The role of intermediary institutions
• The role of the family
• The economy
• Poverty & inequality
• Unemployment
• Welfare reform
• Health
• Immigration
• Housing
• Education
• Environment
• Constitutional Reform
• Britain’s global role
• Europe
• Defence and war
• International development
• Threat from extremism and religiously-inspired conflict

The bishops explain their intentions for this letter:

“This letter from the Church of England’s House of Bishops is addressed to all members of the church... we hope that others, who may not profess church allegiance, will nevertheless join in the conversation and engage with the ideas we are sharing here”

“This letter is intended to help church members and others consider the question: how can we negotiate these dangerous times to build the kind of society which many people say they want but which is not yet being expressed in the vision of any of the parties?”

The Bishop of Leicester stated:
"We do not claim to offer a “God’s eye view” nor to endorse any particular political prospectus, but rather to encourage a renewed political culture in which the lessons for today can be learned.  It is our hope that this letter will serve that purpose."

The bishops say it more gently than we at Ripped-off Britons would. Or Henry V would. 

We dare not compete with Shakespeare. So, back to Henry V, and the General Election:

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for...' write an X next to your preferred candidate 'and St George!'

For the general election put aside your mild manner, put your dog on its lead, cry havoc and go to your polling station!

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

Cameron wants young people to work 30 hours a week for benefits in new Tory plan

The proposals would put young adults who have been out of work, education or training for six months (“neets”) into compulsory community work such as making meals for the elderly or joining local charities. Under the scheme, Jobseekers’ Allowance would be abolished for 18 to 21-year-olds and replaced with the already announced “Youth Allowance” of the same amount: £57.35 a week, or £1.91 per hour of work, well below the £5.13 legal minimum wage for that age group. After six months on the Youth Allowance, claimants would be required to undertake an apprenticeship or community work for their benefits. It is understood that the new plans will not apply to young people who have completed independent work experience in the six months before their benefits claim or the small number of university graduates who could be drawn into the scheme. The Community Work Programme policy would apply to the roughly 50,000 new 18 to 21-year-old claimants a year who have been “neet” for six months - around 10 per cent of claims. But a Liberal Democrat spokesperson criticised the Tory proposals as “all stick, no carrot”, saying they were designed to “punish” rather than to help people into work, the BBC reported. Under Labour plans, young people who have been unemployed for a year would be offered a six-month job, paid for by a tax on bankers’ bonuses. The "Compulsory Jobs Guarantee" would also apply to adults aged 25 or over claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for two years or more. Ed Miliband has also warned that young unemployed people who refuse to comply with the scheme could lose benefits under a Labour government. INDEPENDENT

Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator resigns over his paper’s HSBC Swiss tax scam coverage

Peter Oborne, the paper’s chief political commentator, claimed the paper did not give due prominence to the HSBC story because of commercial interests. Newspapers had a "constitutional duty" to tell readers the truth, he said. In a statement, Mr Oborne said he had already resigned from the paper "as a matter of conscience" because a number of its editorial decisions. He said he had intended to "leave quietly" until he saw the paper's coverage of HSBC and its Swiss banking arm. In comparison to the coverage of the story in other national newspapers, "you needed a microscope to find the Telegraph coverage", Mr Oborne said. He said he had been told HSBC was an "extremely valuable" advertiser by what he called a "well-informed insider". Mr Oborne later told Channel 4 News he believed he spoke "for the vast majority of Telegraph staff" in saying he had no confidence in Murdoch McLennan, the paper's chief executive, and the Barclay brothers who own the paper. A Telegraph spokesman said the "distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been fundamental to our business". They added: "We utterly refute any allegation to the contrary”. BBC NEWS

House of Bishops' letter: Call for "humane economy" irks Tories

A pastoral letter to be sent by the House of Bishops to every parish calls for a "fresh moral vision of the kind of country we want to be." But Tory backbenchers accused the bishops of offering a policy prescription with a "very definite left-wing leaning", while Prime Minister David Cameron urged the Church to recognise the value of work in creating a better society and the dangers of a welfare system that pays people to stay idle. Asked about accusations that the letter resembled a list of SNP or Green Party policies, he told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "I don't believe that, I think it's much more even-handed than that. The only manifesto the Church is signed up to is the teaching of Jesus." The letter said that increasing numbers of people "feel detached" from politics, and warned of "worrying and unfamiliar trends" which have seen "a growing appetite to exploit grievances, find scapegoats and create barriers between people and nations". It argued that there was a "deep contradiction" between Britain's avowed commitment to equality and the way in which the poor and vulnerable are sometimes treated as "unwanted, unvalued and unnoticed". It was "counter-productive" to "denigrate" welfare claimants as people who are "undeserving, dependent and ought to be self-sufficient", the letter said. And it supported the idea of a "humane economy" and the Living Wage, noting the "burgeoning" of in-work poverty. The bishops warned that "an ugly undercurrent of racism" had been introduced into the debate over immigration by language which treats particular ethnic communities as "the problem". The bishops state that the time has come to move beyond "retail politics", adding: "Instead of treating politics as an extension of consumerism, we should focus on the common good, the participation of more people in developing a political vision and constructive ways to talk about communities and how they relate to one another." DAILY MAIL

HSBC: Swiss prosecutors search bank as money-laundering inquiry is launched

Pressure on HSBC has mounted after prosecutors in Switzerland raided the offices of the bank’s Geneva operations following revelations that it helped wealthy customers avoid taxes. The search was being led by the prosecutor-general, Olivier Jornot, and comes after the Belgian and French authorities began to scrutinise the tax affairs of Europe’s biggest bank. The UK is not embarking on a criminal investigation and has faced criticism for prosecuting just one out of the 1,000 individuals whose details were contained in the cache of documents obtained by Hervé Falciani, a former employee of the bank. Those files were the basis of last week’s reports by the Guardian and a collaboration of news outlets around the world about the scale of the tax avoidance operation being run by the bank’s Swiss subsidiary. Swiss prosecutors said the investigation followed those revelations, which showed how HSBC’s Swiss arm allowed clients to withdraw “bricks” of cash and helped clients conceal their accounts from domestic tax authorities. The prosecutors in Switzerland said they were investigating suspected aggravated money laundering and currently focusing on the bank - HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) - although this could be extended to people suspected of committing or participating in money laundering. A petition calling for the UK to investigate the affair is two-thirds of the way to towards its target of attracting 1m signatures. GUARDIAN

Bank of England base rate stuck on 0.5% for five years, but the interest charged on credit cards has shot up to nearly 19%

When the financial crisis struck in 2008, the average credit card customer was paying interest of around 15.5%, while mortgage borrowers were paying around 6% for a two-year fixed-rate deal. Seven years on, new mortgage customers are paying around 2%, but the rates charged on credit cards have headed in the other direction, and now average 17.8% – or nearly 36 times the base rate charged by the Bank of England. Figures prepared for Guardian Money by Moneysupermarket.com show a striking commonality in rates across the market, with every major provider, bar Nationwide building society, now charging the same standard rate. Do you want a credit card from HSBC? Or Santander? Tesco? Sainsbury’s? In each and every case, the APR is now 18.9%, with all of them hiking rates over the past six years. In November the Financial Conduct Authority began an industry-wide probe into the UK’s £150bn credit card market, investigating whether credit cards are being marketed too aggressively, amid concerns that consumers are running up debts they cannot afford. Credit cards can be hugely profitable for the banks. Barclays made £764m profit from its Barclaycard division in the first half of 2014 – up 24% on a year earlier, and equal to more than a fifth of the entire profits the group earned during the period. GUARDIAN

95% of dual fuel customers ‘overcharged for gas and electricity’ by up to £234

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the average saving available to these customers was between £158 and £234 a year depending on the supplier. The findings were the latest update from the CMA’s full-scale probe into the sector which is dominated by the Big Six firms - Centrica, SSE, npower, EDF, Scottish Power and E.ON. The probe also highlighted how customers stuck on more expensive, standard types of tariff tended to be less educated, less well-off, less likely to own their own home or have internet access and more likely to be disabled or a single parent. These customers were more likely to be with an “ex-incumbent” supplier - the gas or electricity provider that served the area before the market was opened up to competition in the 1990s. They tended “to think switching is a hassle, that there are no real differences between suppliers and that something may go wrong if they switch”. But the CMA found that from 2011 to 2014, the Big Six suppliers made 12% more per unit for electricity and 13% for gas from those on these standard variable tariffs (SVTs) than customers on fixed or other deals. Half of customers surveyed said they had never switched, and around a third said they had never considered switching or thought it was impossible. Those in the latter category tended to include people aged 65 and over, those in social accommodation, customers with no qualifications and those on lower incomes. It said the next stage of its investigation would focus on understanding which customers do not switch and why, and identifying the nature of “barriers to switching”. Energy Secretary Ed Davey said he would not flinch from breaking up the Big Six companies if the evidence from the CMA was strong enough to suggest market intervention as the next step. YORKSHIRE POST

While some bosses keep wages frozen rivals dish out inflation-busting rises

A pay divide is opening up, with some workers enjoying annual rises of 2 per cent or more while others are hit by a wage freeze, new research has shown. Gerwyn Davies, labour market analyst for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: 'What's interesting is that this gap exists within sectors, with a significant proportion of employers able to afford a 2 per cent or above pay increase and a significant proportion of organisations in the same sector imposing a pay freeze.' Almost half of workers had their pay frozen or cut last year while a similar number saw their wages increase by at least 2 per cent, said the CIPD. To many a 2 per cent pay rise will sound a minimal amount. But with consumer prices inflation standing at just 0.5 per cent and forecast to fall towards zero or lower by the Bank of England, those seeing such a rise will now find it is inflation-busting. Elsewhere in separate research by trade union union group the TUC, lower than predicted wage settlements are contributing to the deficit as income tax and National Insurance contributions come in under target. The TUC said its research found that the Government was collecting £33 billion less than official forecasts estimated. If pay had increased in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecast made shortly after the coalition came to power in 2010, receipts this year would total £308billion - but the Treasury is expected to collect £275billion, said the union organisation. General secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'When wages go up, consumers spend more, businesses can grow, more income tax and national insurance rolls in and the deficit shrinks. We need a new plan for the economy that gets wages growing and keeps them growing’. DAILY MAIL

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HMRC Crime Map and "Most Wanted" posters show where the Taxation Action is, and where it isn't.

Just as you can judge a person by the company he keeps, you can judge an enforcement agency by the villains it confronts.


America's FBI chases the most murderous crooks of their times: Al Capone; Bonnie & Clyde; John Dilinger; the Unabomber.


Comic book heroes pursue the vilest vicious verminous villains violently.

[Image: The Multi Powers]

HMRC, on the other hand, included in its top 8 "Most Wanted" miscreants in February 2015:

• three VAT fraudsters; 
• two cigarette smugglers;
• one individual pocketing stamp duties; 
• one individual running a tax-credit racket; 
• and an individual who was smuggling non-EU garlic disguised as ginger!

These were, incredibly, HMRC's eight "Most Wanted"! They were more wanted than anybody else HMRC could think of. The garlic smuggler was "More Wanted" than the HSBC and the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) executives who were accused by MPs of running tax dodging scams on an "industrial scale". 

Perhaps HMRC doesn't include the pin-stripe villains in their "Most Wanted" because they know where they are, i.e. they are not 'on the run'. Though perhaps the suits aren't 'on the run' because they know there isn't anybody chasing them?

If it is true that the 'most wanted' only include 'on the runs', then take a look at HMRC's "Crime Map". This shows geographically where HMRC is getting its convictions, and what jail time is being inflicted. The map should show the captured pin-stripe crooks who are not 'on the run'. 

Lots of blue balloons on the map suggest HMRC has been busy. Zoom in and you will find clusters of convictions around Manchester, Birmingham and London. Click on the balloons (not our image, but the real thing) and you find examples of crimes and prison sentences:

• £13k duty evasion: 56 days prison
• £16k duty evasion: 5 months prison
• £30k duty evasion: 10 months prison
• £98k VAT fraud: 2 years prison
• £3.2million duty evasion: 7 years and 1 month prison

According to the BBC Panorama programme, HSBC's Swiss arm took care of US$21.7 billion of assets for clients from the UK, representing hundreds of millions in dodged taxes. I will leave the mathematicians among you to do the extrapolations to determine jail terms proportionate to the sentences given to the VAT and duty dodgers' listed above.

Search for convictions in Britain's "industrial scale" centres of tax dodging services: zoom in on the Crime Map to the two key financial industry hubs in London:

1) The City: there were no blue balloons at all.

2) Canary Wharf: Also a blue-balloon-free-zone.

 
In Parliament's Public Accounts Committee meeting on 31st January 2013 tax chiefs of the Big Four (the world's four largest accountancy firms Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC accused of running 'industrial scale' tax dodging services) were asked what they were paid:

Q146 Chair: Are you all on seven-figure sums? Taking salary and bonuses-are they seven-figure sums? Yes.

Bill Dodwell [Head of Tax Policy, Deloitte LLP] : I’m not, no.

Kevin Nicholson [Head of Tax, PwC]: Yes.
Chair: Jane?

Jane McCormick [UK Head of Tax, KPMG]: Six.
Chair: Are you seven or six?

John Dixon [Head of Tax Policy, Ernst and Young]: Seven.

Bill Dodwell: Six.

Bragging rights went to Kevin Nicholson of PwC and John Dixon of Ernst&Young. Mr.Dodwell and Miss McCormick took as consolation prize the ammunition to get a pay-rise at their next appraisals. All for helping people dodge tax. Doubtless the bosses in charge of HSBC Suisse were no less remunerated.

History has showed for millenia that if you offer enough, people are prepared to do anything. Napolean did it with ribbons and medals. Our financiers prefer hard cash. 

Is that the reason certain salaries in the City are so high? They are not paid for their talent, but for their consciences? Top bankers and accountants aren't prepared to sell their souls at any price: only for a high price.

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Leaked HSBC documents name thousands dodging hundreds of millions in tax by using private Swiss accounts

KJ needs it all explained to him by Fee...

SOURCE DAILY MAIL: HSBC arm 'helped clients evade taxes' as thousands of clients including celebrities and sports stars hold secret Swiss accountsThe Swiss arm of HSBC, Britain's biggest bank helped wealthy clients such as sports stars, celebrities and politicians evade huge amounts of tax, according to an investigation by journalists. The Guardian newspaper and the BBC's Panorama programme analysed details of 30,000 thousand accounts holding nearly £78billion worth of assets and say they found evidence of secret Swiss accounts being used to help clients deliberately conceal assets from tax authorities. Holding a secret bank account is not itself illegal, using such accounts to deliberately conceal assets in order to evade tax is against the law. The leaked documents have already prompted a series of criminal probes in several counties. In the UK, HM Revenue & Customs, which received the data in 2010, has clawed back £135million from over 3,600 Britons. But it has faced complaints from MPs over the pace of progress and the fact that only one evader has been prosecuted.

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 12th February)

Supermarket watchdog investigates Tesco’s dodgy fees that cripple its suppliers

Christine Tacon, the groceries code adjudicator, said she had a reasonable suspicion that Tesco had breached the code. Likely violations, involving many suppliers and large sums of money, include:

• penalties imposed when Tesco claimed items were missing from deliveries
• charging more than an item cost when a customer returned it to Tesco
• delays in refunding suppliers when Tesco incorrectly issued duplicate invoices
• charges for in-store promotions that were either incorrect or not agreed.

Urging suppliers to come forward if they had evidence of breaches by supermarkets, Tacon said she could widen her inquiry if she had reasonable grounds for suspicion that others had also breached the code. The adjudicator, who can force companies to give evidence, said she would protect the anonymity of anyone providing information. Tesco is now facing three formal inquiries, all prompted by the company’s revelation last September that it had overstated expected profit by £250m. The financial hole, since revised to £263m, was caused by incorrect accounting for charges on suppliers stretching back at least two years. It is now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Reporting Council. GUARDIAN

160,000 care workers 'miss out on minimum wage', costing them over £800/year

More than a tenth of UK care workers are being paid less than the national minimum wage of £6.50 an hour, a study suggests. The Resolution Foundation think tank says its research indicates that about 160,000 people are losing out on an average of £815 each a year. It said some firms wrongly did not pay staff when they travelled between clients, on training or when "on call". Ministers said they were taking action against employers who broke the law. The national minimum wage is paid to adults aged 21 and over and there are lower rates for younger workers and apprentices. The minimum wage regulations say working time includes travelling in connection with work, and training or travelling to training during normal working hours. The Resolution Foundation said the total amount that care staff were missing out on was estimated to be about £130m a year, but it could be higher. This is because the study did not take account of illegal deductions to pay which it said was "the most common reason for non-compliance" with the minimum wage regulations. The care industry sector, which employs about 1.4 million people in the UK, has long been associated with low pay, while funding cuts and an ageing population is creating an additional strain on wages, it added. BBC NEWS

Taxpayer hands £26.7bn to private landlords through housing benefit, tax breaks, says campaign group

Private landlords are benefiting from subsidies worth the equivalent of £1,000 for every household in the UK, the campaign group Generation Rent has claimed, with tax breaks and housing benefit bolstering their gains from house price increases. The £26.7bn pocketed by private landlords is made up of £9.3bn of housing benefit paid on behalf of low-income tenants, £1.69bn through the “wear-and-tear” tax relief landlords can claim on their properties, £6.63bn of tax that landlords do not have to pay on mortgage interest payments and £9.06bn of tax landlords do not pay on their annual average capital gains. The buy-to-let industry has boomed in recent years as the rising rents and house prices have made property an increasingly attractive investment for those with enough money to raise a deposit. HM Revenue & Customs showed the total number of buy-to-let investors in the UK had increased by 120,000 in 2014, to 1.6 million. New pension freedoms set to come into force in April are expected to lead to even more landlords entering the market. The campaign is calling for an additional landlord levy of 22% on rental income, which it said would recoup the £9.3bn housing benefit bill and should be used to fund 90,000 new council houses. In the post-war period the number of new homes peaked at 352,000 in 1968, while the number of new social homes reached its highest level of 207,730 in 1954. In 2013, 22,510 social homes were built, out of a total of 109,640 newbuilds. House of Commons library research showed that the housing benefit budget had risen in real terms by 220% since 1985, while investment in housebuilding had fallen by 41%. GUARDIAN

Extra £5bn for pensioner bonds: Osborne gives wealthy older voters a pre-election boost

George Osborne has announced that hundreds of thousands more over-65s will benefit from the government's flagship pensioner bonds scheme in the run up to the General Election. The Chancellor said that an additional £5billion worth of bonds will be made available over the next three months because the government wants to "back savers [and] support people who do the right thing". More than 610,000 over-65s have bought pensioner bonds worth £7.5billion since they were launched last month in an unprededented stampede which caused websites to crash. The government initially made £10billion worth of bonds available, but Mr Osborne said that figure is likely to be extended to £15billion. Mr Osborne said the policy was to compensate pensioners who have suffered from the governments "deliberate" policy of keeping interest rates low. The bonds, which pay an interest rate of 2.8% for one year or 4% for a three year investment, offer significantly better rates than existing products. However Mark Littlewood, of the Institute for Economic Affairs, criticised the move. He said: "This announcement well and truly proves that we are not all in it together. Borrowing more expensively than the government needs to is effectively a direct subsidy to wealthy pensioners from the working-age population...Pensioner bonds have never been anything other than a gimmick that will benefit pensioners at the expense of the taxpayer, and it beggars belief that the government is prolonging such a foolish policy. It’s high time our politicians stopped buying votes with subsidies for the old and rich.” TELEGRAPH

Record-breaking £5.1bn TV deal, but Premier League boss under fire over minimum wage paid to stadium staff

The Premier League came under fire today after defending top clubs paying stadium staff the minimum wage — despite selling British TV rights for its matches for a record £5.1 billion, up 70%. Its chief executive Richard Scudamore said he was “not uncomfortable” with clubs paying star players huge salaries, some reportedly more than £300,000 a week, while some staff earn just £6.50 an hour. Business Secretary Vince Cable urged Premier League clubs to pay the “living wage” if they could afford it. He told the Standard: “There is a lot of money in the sport...If companies can afford to pay the living wage, they should.”  Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy, who has campaigned for clubs to pay the living wage of £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 outside, said of  Mr Scudamore’s stance: “He should not just feel uncomfortable, he should feel ashamed. "This is conscious greed, plain and simple.” Tory MP Chris Heaton-Harris, and vice-captain of the all-party parliamentary football team. Chelsea are the only Premier League club officially accredited with the Living Wage Foundation for paying the living wage. Staff on the minimum pay are often contract workers doing catering, cleaning and security, rather than being directly employed by companies. EVENING STANDARD

HSBC arm 'helped clients evade taxes' as thousands of clients including celebrities and sports stars hold secret Swiss accounts

The Swiss arm of HSBC, Britain's biggest bank helped wealthy clients such as sports stars, celebrities and politicians evade huge amounts of tax, according to an investigation by journalists. The Guardian newspaper and the BBC's Panorama programme analysed details of 30,000 thousand accounts holding nearly £78billion worth of assets and say they found evidence of secret Swiss accounts being used to help clients deliberately conceal assets from tax authorities. Holding a secret bank account is not itself illegal, using such accounts to deliberately conceal assets in order to evade tax is against the law. The leaked documents have already prompted a series of criminal probes in several counties. In the UK, HM Revenue & Customs, which received the data in 2010, has clawed back £135million from over 3,600 Britons. But it has faced complaints from MPs over the pace of progress and the fact that only one evader has been prosecuted. DAILY MAIL

PwC promoted tax avoidance 'on industrial scale', say MPs

"We believe that PricewaterhouseCoopers's activities represent nothing short of the promotion of tax avoidance on an industrial scale," said Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). She said PwC had written more than 500 letters to the tax authorities in Luxembourg, on behalf of more than 300 international clients. The tax avoidance schemes, which are legal, involve companies diverting profits to tax havens like Luxembourg via a series of loans between different parts of the business. The profits are eventually taxed in that country, but often at tiny rates. The MPs also accused PwC of misleading the committee at an earlier hearing. "We consider that the evidence that PwC provided to us in January 2013 was misleading, in particular its assertions that 'we are not in the business of selling schemes', and 'we do not mass-market tax products, we do not produce tax products, we do not promote tax products'," said Ms Hodge. The European Commission is currently investigating the internet giant Amazon, over its agreements with the Luxembourg tax authorities. The UK government is also in the process of introducing the Diverted Profit Tax, announced by the chancellor, George Osborne in the Autumn Statement. The tax aims to counter the use of "aggressive tax planning techniques" to divert profits from the UK to low tax jurisdictions. Profits made after 1 April 2015, and diverted to other countries, will be taxed at 25%. BBC NEWS

Wonga escapes criminal investigation over faked legal letters that threatened customers

In June 2014, Wonga was fined £2.6m by the City regulator when it emerged that it had been sending out demands for repayments in the names of fabricated law firms, and in some cases charging an administration fee for its services. Between October 2008 and November 2010 Wonga 45,000 sent letters to customers in arrears under the names Chainey D’Amato & Shannon and Barker & Lowe Legal Recoveries, in an action the Financial Conduct Authority said was designed “to maximise [its] collections by unfairly increasing pressure on customers”. After action by the FCA to secure compensation for the affected customers, the matter was referred to the City of London police to see if the firm should face a criminal investigation for fraud. Police have now decided that there are no grounds for action. They confirmed that, with the exception of some of the earliest versions of the letters, they had all said somewhere in the small print that they had come from the lender. GUARDIAN

University students are being forced to accept unfair and unexpected changes to their courses

Which? questioned whether colleges were giving students a fair deal for their tuition fees, and called on the Competition and Markets Authority to examine what it claims is evidence that some colleges use terms and conditions that breach consumer law. Freedom of Information Act requests sent by Which? to 142 UK universities found half (51%) use terms that allow them to change the content and location of courses, even when such changes could have been prevented, it said. One in five universities (20%) – used terms that Which? lawyers thought breached the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, while 31% used wording deemed to be bad practice and likely to be unlawful. Just 5% used terms considered good practice and only one, the University of York, used terms that were best practice. The 26 universities that used terms Which? considered potentially unlawful included Aston University, King’s College London and the University of Leicester. Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: “Students deserve to know what they can expect from a course before signing up so that they can be confident they will get what they pay for. With tuition fees higher than ever before, we want universities to take immediate action to give students the protection they’re entitled to.” GUARDIAN

Small businesses say UK public have lost faith in big business and believe government should step in

According to the Forum of Private Business, 76 per cent of the 2,000 survey respondents agree that the next government should penalise big businesses that act unfairly towards small businesses. While 74 per cent agreed that the majority of big businesses have no concern for small business owners in the UK. Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business said: 'From tax avoidance and high street domination to late payment and supply chain abuse – every week our members tell us that some of the biggest names in British business are threatening their livelihoods.' Meanwhile, the latest BDO Monthly Business Trends survey said companies appeared 'unruffled' by the upcoming election, despite the current debate around business confidence in political parties. BDO partner Peter Hemington said 'By discounting the political noise and taking a realistic view of the economy's strengths, businesses are remaining cautiously optimistic.' DAILY MAIL

Low income “Rent-to-own” customers face rip-off interest rates of 94%, say MPs

Hundreds of thousands of customers who buy household goods through rent-to-own schemes are being "ripped off", a group of MPs has concluded. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Debt and Personal Finance said some of the poorest people in the UK are being charged interest rates of up to 94% a year to buy TVs or washing machines. Under the rent-to-own model, consumers take out an agreement to buy a product, and then pay weekly instalments until they own it - similar to a hire purchase agreement. But usually customers have to take out compulsory insurance and warrantees, which can double the eventual cost. The MPs said that such insurance may have been mis-sold - especially where people already had household cover. BrightHouse, the largest company, said it was disappointed by the report. BrightHouse is the biggest chain in the UK, with 291 stores, mostly based in deprived areas. BBC NEWS

NHS whistleblowers ignored, bullied and intimidated, inquiry finds

Launching the results of his Freedom to Speak Up Review, Sir Robert Francis QC said: “Some 30% of people who had raised a concern said they felt unsafe after after they had done so. Eighteen per cent of staff said they didn’t trust the system so they wouldn’t speak out; 15% told us they feared being victimised if they did so … I’ve spoken to people who have not only lost their jobs, their livelihood, they’ve not been able to find other jobs to do. And I’m afraid in some cases have felt suicidal and become ill as a result.” His recommendations will lead to an overhaul of trainee doctors’ and nurses’ training to make it “rigorous and enhanced”, which from September will include teaching on how they should alert their superiors if they see unsafe care happening. GUARDIAN

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