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.
Instead of ‘delcaring war on Jersey’ etc. why don’t we close the exemption in our laws that allow the tax-free importation of certain goods from the Channel Islands.
Yeah, but Mark… rumour has it Jersey has WMDs… just saw it in a dodgy dossier…
Oh, just a note about UK Benefit Fraud…
http://www.intensiveactivity.com/proven-benefit-fraud-shy-of-claimed-target/dwp-0904,1945,310,37.html
How much do they claim benefit fraud costs the taxpayer every year? Approx £1.5bn. (Add official error it climbs to £5bn) How much did they discover last year (after the benefit scrounging political talks, the benefit fraud adverts etc.) using their £65 million quid computer system?
Just under 10% of this huge target. It got me curious of how they got this big figure and in regards to the billions left unclaimed every year. Social Fund fraud was worth £2000 last year. Employer Involvement was worth £3000 last year. For England, Wales, Scotland and N.I those figures are very low.
Excluding the obvious big ones such as working while not declaring it and living with a partner, Housing Benefit fraud was just £2 million – I say “just” because of the big amounts of money involved.
Fraud is fraud, whether petty (such as the Social Fund) or more major – it is immoral and illegal. However, more people will be dishonest when “times are hard” so I am a little disappointed at the figures being so low.
Also, adding insight into the equation… I know DWP counts from the offence to when they discover it to determine the amount of money deemed to be stolen. If you were claiming benefit for 3 months, after a month you did a weeks work… but didn’t declare it, the amount stolen would be for 2 months not a week… because you didn’t declare the change of circumstances. This applies for less sinister offences such as changing address but not declaring it (regardless if the move only took a day) and going on holiday/away from home for at least a day without declaring it.
They should focus on getting the bigger money from big companies. It is the simple concept that the poor are easy targets. This is true. They are also very small and the amounts are small. The flaw in this logic is if it costs £100m to recover £150m then surely it would be better spent taxpayers’ money to spend £50m recouping £1bn of tax evasion?
Heard about the £2 billion underpaid PAYE income tax?
http://www.intensiveactivity.com/paye-income-tax/con-servatives-0907,1805,328,31.html
ConDem(n) Government wants people to repay back the underpayments over the last 2 years in the next tax year by adjusting the tax code. This will leave the average person affected with £120 per month tax EXTRA!!
The Government should allow people to spread it over numerous years thus allowing the £28 weekly tax increase to be something more easier to manage like £7 (4 years).