Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

BenefitsStreet • 2 hours ago





The first Newark by-election opinion poll is out. Not looking good for the LibDems:

Con 36%

UKIP 28%

Lab 27%

LibDems 5%



Lost the link, sorry.

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-05-29/poll-tories-still-on-course-to-win-newark-by-election/

Poll: Tories still on course to win Newark by-election

The Tories are still on track to win the Newark by-election despite a massive Ukip surge, according to a poll.

Research by Survation for The Sun put the Conservatives on 36% in the constituency, ahead of Nigel Farage's party on 28% and Labour on 27%.

Poll out tonight showing that 75% of those who voted UKIP at last weeks elections will do so at the GE. !!!!!!!!!

Devastating news for the Tories.

It's allways the same on TV, I get the feeling everything has to go to a pre-planned agenda, if something controversial rears it's head they steer it away to something more neutral.

sticky old chap, much will depend on whether the undeniable (except by you and fred) strong growth in the uk economy, and that includes manufacturing, gets translated into a general feelgood mentality, which also of course means people starting to find a bit more splosh in their pockets .... it is that sort of thing + any signs coming out of brussels that will affect GE outcome

btw, there was also a very interesting long news section yesterday on help-to-buy ..... i know you and fred like to chunter on interminably, but the facts are that nearly all people on this scheme (and they are growing rapidly) are buying houses that cost an average of £150k as against the national average of £250k
there was actually a lot more interesting stuff too

Help To Buy not driving property bubble, Treasury says

New figures show the number of mortgages guaranteed by the Government has tripled since the start of the year



By James Edgar

1:26PM BST 29 May 2014



The Help to Buy scheme is not fuelling a housing bubble, the Treasury has insisted, as new figures show the number of mortgages guaranteed by the Government has tripled since the start of the year.


Some 7,313 mortgages were completed in the first six months of the programme, which was launched in October 2013, and more than half of the home loans were for under £150,000.


Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has argued that Help to Buy was stoking a "raging housing boom" in London and the South East, but the new figures show just 5 per cent of sales under the scheme were in the capital.


However, the latest Treasury figures, which cover the first six months of the controversial scheme since it started in October last year, show it is the regions that benefitted most.


“Almost half of all mortgage completions through the scheme are on properties worth £125,000 or less, with just over 7 per cent of mortgage completions being made on properties valued at £250,000 and above,” the Treasury said.



More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/10862683/Help-To-Buy-not-driving-property-bubble-Treasury-says.html

Ahhh but Cyners theirs a big downturn to this growth story you keep harping on about and Ive mentioned it at least 3 or 4 times, these so called Zombie self employed jobs where the Job Centre Plus are encouraging people to sign up self employed rather than claim benefits and instead take TAX CREDITS. Most of these workers arent working any where near full time.

Now I said they would get done further down the line by the HMRC and today i have been proved absolutely SPOT ON.

I think you should aplaud me for my foresight.

BUT who should shoulder the blame for this given that IDS and his poisonous dwarf Ester have been actively encouraging the Job Centre to pursue this un written policy with claimants.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personally i think its a SCANDAL and IDS and CO should be thrown out of their jobs.

Pursuit of tax credit overpayments turns nasty as debt collectors hound the poorest

Exclusive : Campaigners say families living below the breadline are being harassed by phone and text message for money they do not have
EMILY DUGAN Author Biography Thursday 29 May 2014

Hundreds of thousands of Britain’s poorest people are being targeted by private debt collectors hired by the Government after their tax credits were overpaid because of errors made by HMRC.

A joint investigation by The Independent and the campaign group False Economy has uncovered the Coalition’s increasingly forceful methods of pursuing more than 4.7 million cases of overpaid tax credits, which amount to debts of £1.6bn.

The hardline stance follows pledges by Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to bring down the benefits bill.

The debt collectors hired by HMRC phone the people they are targeting on their mobiles, send them text messages and write to them at home. Some of those targeted say they feel harassed and frightened. In at least 80 tax credit cases, assets have been seized directly.

In total, HMRC made 215,144 referrals to debt collection agencies in 2013-14 to “secure direct recovery of overpaid personal tax credits”, according to data obtained through Freedom of Information requests.

In many cases the overpayment is thanks to an HMRC error in calculation. The families involved are already living on very low incomes, making it impossible to pay back the accumulated sums.

Most of the working families affected are among Britain’s poorest. More than half a million of the families involved have a taxable household income of less than £20,000. Of these, 118,000 earned less than £5,000.

False Economy researcher Chaminda Jayanetti said: “Tax credit overpayments are the big scandal that no one is talking about. Millions of people are hit by a system that persecutes people with trumped-up demands for money they don’t have, creating heavy debts where none existed, effectively indenturing them while private debt collectors circle like sharks.”

Tax credits are calculated according to estimated earnings. If people earn more than they expected to, then they may only realise they have been overpaid at the end of the tax year. HMRC is usually given all the necessary information about earnings but does not always notice overestimates until the end of the year.

Dame Anne Begg, chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said: “I’m very worried about the use of debt collectors because very often that means the debt has been sold on and the tactics they use to collect the debt are not tactics a government should use.

“Obviously it’s taxpayers’ money and if there’s been an overpayment then there should be efforts to recover it. But in recovering that money we shouldn’t be plunging people into poverty and it’s that sensitivity the HMRC needs to exercise.

“That’s why the Labour government put in quite a big buffer that meant your circumstances had to change a great deal for your award to change at the end of the year.”

HMRC has hired at least 12 private debt collectors to pursue tax credits, according to the FoI request. They are: Advantis Credit; Akinika Debt Recovery; Apex Credit Management; Bluestone Credit Management; CCSCollect; Sigma Red; Credit Solutions; Direct Legal & Collections; Drydensfairfax solicitors; Equita; Fredrickson International and Rossendales.

Working and child tax credits were brought in by the Labour government in 2003 to top-up low-income families. Overpayment was a major issue when they were first introduced but was brought down to a low of 1.2 million cases in 2007. Since then, however, the number and cost of overpayments has gone up every year.

Tax credits are based on a family’s estimated income for the coming year. Under the Labour government, households were allowed to earn an extra £25,000 before they had to pay money back. But in 2010 this buffer was gradually reduced to £5,000 by the Coalition, meaning thousands of families faced being chased for overpayment debts.

In the same year, the Government announced that it would start using professional debt collectors to collect unpaid taxes. It was assumed this would be for wealthy tax avoiders, but there is evidence that they are also using them to target those on minimal incomes.

Underpayment is also a problem, with more than £1bn owed to 1.5 million families in the tax year to 2012.

Citizens Advice is expected to report today that the number of people asking for advice on tax credit debts has increased dramatically in recent years. The Government will release its latest figures on tax credit overpayment today.

The Government plans to replace the tax credits and benefit system with universal credit, but the welfare reform has been beset with delays and major computer problems.

An HMRC spokesman said: “The use of DCAs is an established cost effective part of our normal debt collection operations. All that these agencies do is issue letters, issue SMS text messages and make phone calls to HMRC customers. The debt collection agencies we use adhere to highest customer service standards in line with the Office of Fair Trading’s code of practice and our own customer charter.”

He added: “Over and underpayments have always been a consequence of the tax credits system as HMRC calculates awards based on the current information it holds.

“Many overpayments result from people failing to tell us about a change of circumstances as soon as possible, so customers should tell us of any changes straight away.”

sticks - i wasn't talking about unemployment, as that is a by-product of whether the real economy is growing or shrinking

however, with regard to unfairly constructed zero-hour contracts, i think we're all pretty much in agreement ..... properly constructed and administered, and i have given good examples in the past, they can and often are good news for all parties


max - exactly so, but unfortunately there is a perception that is forever puffed up and bandied around by assorted interested parties, that the scheme is aimed at the far-too-well-off, because the ceiling is £600k (a preposterous level it must be agreed)

http://news.sky.com/story/1271871/uk-economic-growth-at-11-year-high-cbi-survey

UK Economic Growth At 11-Year High: CBI Survey

A survey of more than 700 UK firms has indicated the strongest rate of growth since data was first collected more than a decade ago.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said its poll of 726 companies showed May growth expansion at its best since 2003.

The findings come as a second lobby group, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), upped its 2014 growth forecast by a tenth.

The BCC said it now expects growth this year at 3.1% instead of an earlier estimate of 2.8%

Trouble is its not showing up in pay packets hence the Tories doing so badly in the latest elections.

The problem with Tax Credits where IDS as comitted a crimminal act certainly wont help.

Trouble is its not showing up in pay packets

quite so, and unfortunately (for the tories i guess, but really everyone) this is bound to lag just as employment stays high for a while when the economy is heading south

WOW breaking news THIS IS BIG VERY BIG................

Jayne L ‏@JayneLinney 4minutes ago.

JUDGE ORDERS DWP TO DISCLOSE UNIVERSAL CREDIT DOCUMENTS

More to follow.

JUDGE ORDERS DWP TO DISCLOSE UNIVERSAL CREDIT DOCUMENTS

Documents set to reveal full extent of chaos in flagship scheme
Could provide ‘smoking gun’ showing IDS misled parliament
Tribunal slams “sharp contrast” between DWP spin and reality
Final release of documents could depend on outcome of DWP appeal



A judge has ordered the DWP to disclose potentially damning documents relating to the botched Universal Credit programme. The papers could provide a ‘smoking gun’which proves conclusively that Iain Duncan Smith and the DWP misled parliamentwith their ridiculously optimistic assessments of progress on the programme.

The documents were requested by campaigners, including journalist Tony Collins (@tonyrcollins), under the Freedom of Information Act in March and April last year. The DWP has fought tooth and nail to keep them secret – even sending the director of the programme to court to argue against disclosure.

The documents include:

Project Assessment Review – periodic high level review of large project
Issues Register – details of problems and failures
High Level Milestone Schedule – sequence of activities and timings
The tribunal upheld a decision not to release the project’s Risk Register, a comprehensive assessment of potential risks ranked by likelihood and severity.

Scrapbook has blogged before (here and here) on Iain Duncan Smith’s attempts to disguise his failure. If the documents are published they will be inevitably set against the chronology of statements emanating from the department, a theme picked up by the tribunal:

We are struck by the sharp contrast [of critical independent reports] with the unfailing confidence and optimism of a series of press releases by the DWP or ministerial statements as to the progress of [Universal Credit] during the relevant period. The press release of 1st. November, 2011 quoting the Secretary of State as saying that UCP was “on track and on time for implementing from 2013” and a DWP spokesperson in 2012, refuting criticism from the Shadow Secretary of State -

“ Liam Byrne is quite simply wrong. Universal Credit is on track and on budget. To suggest anything else is incorrect.”

are simply examples of the summary of press releases

Scrapbook understands the department could yet appeal to a so-called ‘Upper Tribunal’.

www.politicalscrpbook.net

http://iainduncansmith.com/2014/03/judge-orders-dwp-disclose-universal-credit-documents/

They can still withhold the documents.

Why what do they have to hide???????????????????????

The only way they can get out of this one now is through an appeal to the 'Upper Tribunal'

Cant see it granted though.

IDS chickens are coming home to roost.