Credit agencies….the new bounty hunters

The poor are being vilified and stigmatised as the cause not only of their own plight but of the economic mess that Britain is in (the rest of the world is of not much interest to those inclined to get hot under the collar about benefit fraud). It is  an exercise in distraction. Political distraction. The Con bit of the ConDems are creating a smoke screen for their mates in the city (…nice one George, cheers old man!). The only other motive is crude class hatred of ordinary people who dare to ask for anything from the system other than to be exploited and oppressed.

And the latest wheeze by the Con/Dems (or as David Cameron put it, ‘using modern technologies in dealing with benefit fraud’) is using credit reference agencies as ‘bounty hunters’ (sounds like the Wild West) tracking benefit fraudsters. Surreal but true. It raises questions of which accuracy, accountability and access are just three. Who will see this information and where else will it go?? You can just imagine the cock-ups happenings, can’t you. People of same or similar names being mixed up, people moving around, incomplete information….and more cock-ups can be imagined. It will end in tears and not the Con/Dems unfortunately.

But the agencies are not accountable for errors such as people being wrongly harassed by debt collectors or unfairly refused credit. It’s a Kafkaesque world where the credit agencies absolve themselves of responsibility for their material, saying it is how the banks and other organisations use it that counts – and that’s beyond their control. Question the banks, however, and they say they have no option other than to follow the information from the credit reference agencies. So it is beyond their control as well.

These proposals don’t make sense. How can you possibly find someone cheating the benefits system by using Experian? It’s policy making on the hoof. Also, why bring in credit rating agencies to deal with the benefits system, to deal with an area they have no expertise or knowledge (but as we know that hasn’t stopped previous governments bringing in private companies who know jack about the benefits system)?

Furthermore

Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling told the BBC: “This is data that is publicly available, that is publicly on sale, that’s available to – not go into the fine detail of what you spend – but overall to set out spending patterns, what loans you have taken out, your overall patterns of spending in your life.

“And if there’s a huge mismatch between the way you are living your life and the amount of money you are supposed to be receiving from the state on benefits, surely it is right and proper that we should be saying: ‘How is that happening?’”

Ok, take this example, say someone has just become unemployed their spending patterns will be shifting dramatically, they may have more money than someone who has been unemployed for a longer period. There will be significant differences, what about the person who has some redundancy money?

This is an ideological attack by the Con/Dems on the public sector, the public sector is about the common good while the private sector is based on greed, profit and incentives, plus in the long term it will cost the state more money. It will also cost the poor a hell of a lot more through benefits being wrongly taken away and that’s a stark reality. It will create more misery and poverty.

Declare war on tax havens and not the poor!

David Cameron is again putting the spotlight on so-called ‘benefit cheats’ (this time claimants with addictions)… and declaring war on them. Fighting talk. The screaming headlines will pass into the collective consciousness and memory of the readership. The lazy assumptions between claimants and fraudsters. These headlines and stories make good copy albeit lazy journalism. And that the Con/Dems are doing something against these dodgy fraudsters….

Now talking of dodgy fraudsters…..

Tax fraud in the form of tax evasion costs in the estimate of HM Revenue & Customs more than £30 billion a  year and in the estimate of others £70 billion a year.

And that’s a conservative estimate….

Now somehow I can’t see David Cameron declaring war on Jersey. The attention falls …predictably…on the poor in this society, while the rich and powerful who have the luxury of not having to worry about money but get away with tax avoidance and evasion cos they can….

Furthermore, where are the screaming headlines over this?  That around £16bn worth of benefits are left unclaimed. Where’s the indignation from the Tory press and the Con/Dems? Where’s the shock and horror over this? Or does this just slip past them because it doesn’t correspond with the right-wing populism that the media likes to peddle.

Yes, over £16bn of benefits are unclaimed…. No fanfare over this. Nor over the millions lost through underpayments. And as a consequence working class people are losing out therefore increased poverty. The spotlight falls on the poor in this society, and also the amount of money lost due to ‘error and fraud’ with lots of trumped up tabloid hyperbole never mind that this is a drop in the financial ocean when comparing it to tax evasion and avoidance.