The Independent carries the following, absurd, report this morning:
Benefit cheats will face increased jail terms of up to 10 years in a crackdown on those who "flout the system", Britain's most senior prosecutor has said.
Keir Starmer QC warned it was time for a "tough stance" against the perpetrators of benefit and tax credit fraud as he set out new guidelines for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The Director of Public Prosecutions said the £1.9 billion annual cost of the crime to the taxpayer should be at the "forefront of lawyers' minds" when considering whether a prosecution was in the public interest.
Suspects can now be charged under the Fraud Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the CPS said. In the past, benefit cheats have often been pursued under specific social security legislation which carries a maximum term of seven years.
A financial threshold which prevented benefit fraud cases of less than £20,000 from being sent to crown court will also be abolished, the CPS said.
Now don't get me wrong: I have a dislike of all fraud.
But let's also get some facts straight. Tax evasion amounts to £70 billion and year and tax avoidance to £25 billion a year. Yes, I know they're my estimates, but the European Union uses them even if HM Revenue & Customs insists the combined number is a ludicrously low £32 billion a year. In my opinion tax fraud is at least 50 times bigger than benefit fraud.
And the fact is that benefit fraud is massively outweighed by unclaimed benefits - which are at least £12 billion a year.
But most offensive of all is the fact that vast numbers of tax cases involving fraud are settled by confidential contractual arrangements. This has to date included almost al the offshore cases settled as a result of disclosures from Swiss banks and via the official disclosure regime from Liechtenstein. And when I searched for evidence of tax sentencing I found this trumpeted in an HMRC document:
A recent prosecution involved a financial adviser who assisted a client in committing £900,000 in VAT fraud. He then gambled some of his share of the proceeds away in a London casino. When charged with cheating the Exchequer he claimed to be ill and unable to attend court, but CCTV footage obtained by HMRC showed him attending a casino at the time that he claimed to be ill and he has now been jailed for five years.
Tax fraud is now subject to maybe 400 prosecutions a year. The penalties are small. But ten years is being threatened for benefit fraud. The publicity, the sentences and the messaging is all disproportionate and the allocation of resources is all wrong.
Tax evasion is the cancer really causing a crisis in the UK, undermining fair competition, destroying trust, eroding professional standards, fuelling austerity, driving misery and denying our children a future. But it's benefit fraud that is picked on. That's warped logic if ever there was evidence of such thinking.
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A man running about a sports field whilst saying he cant walk a few feet without being in pain is an issue. One that seems to be on the increase in the UK. Whether this was in response to the previous people in our Government or an increase in people in the country.
You are mistaken that people who commit tax fraud aren’t named and shamed. If you commit tax fraud you go to jail. There was one last week.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415978/Financial-adviser-Michael-Jones-jailed-600k-tax-fraud-help-son-Nicks-motor-racing-career.html
Tax evasion is different to fraud. Whilst you and some have views on this, it has been allowed in the World for the past 30 years. This has helped create an industry an place many people I work. Which has enabled more business to be profitable.
Respectfully, your last para reveals that you really do not know what you are talking about
Tax evasion is fraud
There is no permission for it
Stephen
Tax evasion is breaking the law. If it is breaking the law, it is not allowed.
What part of “breaking the law” do you not understand?
Or, are you acting on the basis that the law only applies to the little people”?
“A man running about a sports field whilst saying he cant walk a few feet without being in pain is an issue. One that seems to be on the increase in the UK.”
The operative words here is “seems”. It seems that way because of a relentless propaganda drive, not because of actual reality.
The word “seems” should not be in there as there have been TV Programs where people have been secretly filmed and taken to Court for doing just that. It is all Fraud but what makes it seem worse when it is someone pretending to have a Disability is the difficulty some Genuinely Disabled people have in getting Benefit. At one Tribunal a person with Down’s Syndrome was deemed to not be Disabled. How stupid can some Doctors who sit on these Tribunals be. The main problem is they have passed their sell by date and for all I know they could be suffering some type of Dementia themselves. Can anyone justify that a person with Down’s Syndrome is not disabled in some way?
Another extension of the vilification of the poor. What worries me is that people close to the bread line earning a small amount ‘on the side’ will be chased up. Most Governments know that you can’t live on JSA and the odd tenner cash in hand is no big deal in my view. The housing market has made it difficult to live on low income and the poorest in our society did not cause this.
Fraud act 2006:
(1)A person is guilty of fraud if he is in breach of any of the sections listed in subsection (2) (which provide for different ways of committing the offence).
(2)The sections are–
(a)section 2 (fraud by false representation),
(b)section 3 (fraud by failing to disclose information), and
(c)section 4 (fraud by abuse of position).
Fraud by false representation
(1)A person is in breach of this section if he–
(a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b)intends, by making the representation–
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
So that covers both the party gaining, and the party “advising”.
The crime is “failing to disclose earnings”.
Dislosing may reduce benefit, but small amounts frequently do not lead to benefit reduction.
The problem with disclosure is that most staff at jobseekers are short-term contract (temps) and know sod-all about anything. So the problem gets passed to “decision makers” (no, no kidding) who usually make the wrong decision and stop all benefits…..which then have to be re-applied for, usually after several weeks of delay. the whole system is cumbersome, and, in my opinion, deliberately so.
You would think that in this day of data communication things would get simpler. No. The easiest way to talk to them is to go to jobseekers and use their freephones inside…no, that also is not a joke…because you usually cannot get through to them on a home phone, and the phone is local call rate….so a half hour talking to nobody costs a quid….
I’m going through this process at present -I’m trying to sort out how much of my four hours will affect my benefits. I;m trying to be open about it but am in fear of my ‘honesty’ tripping myself up! I can’t seem to get any sense out of anyone yet am aware that benefits will be stopped for the least precedent so there is this continuous background of anxiety. The folks at the Job centres seem desperately unhappy with their jobs and are often not interested in what you have to say – I don’t blame them, they are doing there best. The overt programme of showering the poor with opprobrium beggars belief-I never thought that this country would sink to these lower depths; but it has.
There are two laws – one for the rich,and another for the poor!
Own Jones on BBC is excellent on this.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxrrTNTWMQ
Andrew, I’m amazed the BBC allowed someone with such “radical” views on. No doubt someone from No.10 or the Tory Party was in touch with the BBC and/or Trustees pretty shortly after that to complain about bias!!
Anyway, bloody well put by Owen Jones.
Owen gets the television
I get Radio 5!
But he;s bloody good, and you can see why!
All this demonstrates is that we have a government in a democratic country that is not fit for purpose, illegitimate if you like, because it serves the interests of a plutocracy only.
From the proposed millionaire’s train line (HS2) which will drain even more into UK’s “wealth blackhole”, the City of London, to the obvious “tax hand outs” to(welfare for)the parasitic rich and the risk adverse multinationals.
Meanwhile, tertiary education is becoming a luxury item, owning house is a hopeless dream for many, rent, heat, light and commuting costs spiral and pay day lenders circling like vultures.
Quite simply this is class warfare.
“But let’s also get some facts straight. Tax evasion amounts to £70 billion and year and tax avoidance to £25 billion a year. Yes, I know they’re my estimates”
Are you saying your estimate is now a fact? If it’s provable, which I take most facts to be, shouldn’t you give your proof to HMRC so that they can revise their figures?
They have the evidence
But of course it’s not fact: it’s an estimate
Just as they have an estimate
But the evidence for my estimate is, I suggest, better than theirs
I see no difference between Benefit fraud and Tax Fraud. End of Story.
Leniency for small amounts and cooperation ( unless working in a position of Trust).
Simple really.