Monthly Archives: March 2024

Scrap plans to scan accounts of benefit claimants or risk new scandal, MPs told

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/04/ministers-urged-to-scrap-plans-for-surveillance-of-benefit-claimants-bank-accounts

The DWP is seeking powers to require banks to trawl the accounts of millions of people who receive benefits. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Campaigners say ‘fully automated’ approach risks repeat of Post Office Horizon scandal

Plans for automated surveillance of millions of bank accounts to catch welfare cheats should be scrapped, campaigners have said, warning the approach risks a repeat of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

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But campaigners for welfare claimants, disabled people, human rights and privacy warned ministers it represents an “unprecedented and disproportionate invasion of the public’s financial privacy, the effect of which will be felt most sharply by the most vulnerable”.

The net would also trawl the private banking data of people related to welfare claimants including partners, parents and landlords. It would save around £360m a year – less than 5% of the total lost to welfare fraud, according to the government’s best estimate.

In a letter to Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, 42 organisations, from Disability Rights UK to Big Brother Watch, said: “There are approximately 22.6 million individuals in the welfare system, including those who are disabled, sick, caregivers, job seekers, and pensioners. They should not be treated like criminals by default … The Horizon scandal saw hundreds of people wrongfully prosecuted using data from faulty software. The government must learn from this mistake – not replicate it en masse.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/04/ministers-urged-to-scrap-plans-for-surveillance-of-benefit-claimants-bank-accounts

Continue ReadingScrap plans to scan accounts of benefit claimants or risk new scandal, MPs told

Morning Star: We need an emergency Budget – but there’s no relief in sight

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, with his ministerial box before delivering his Budget in the Houses of Parliament, March 6, 2024

BRITAIN needed an emergency Budget today, one that addressed the profound crises facing local authorities, healthcare, education, you name it.

It got nothing of the sort. A scattering of headline investments like the “NHS productivity plan,” focused on IT systems and ignoring the staff shortages that have led to waiting lists seven million long.

A 2p cut to National Insurance that benefits higher earners more and, by reducing the tax take, tightens the funding squeeze on essential services. Bigger cuts to capital gains tax, incentivising the property speculation that has helped drive the housing crisis.

It was a complacent Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt spending longer trying to explain away Britain’s “technical” recession as some kind of economic success (the same Chancellor said last year he was “comfortable” with Bank of England policy causing a recession to reduce wages) than he did outlining new measures that might make a difference.

Britain has “turned the corner” on inflation, he claims, though prices rising more slowly doesn’t mean prices falling and millions of us know what we pay for food, energy and a roof over our heads has soared in recent years.

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There is plenty of money. Last month Britain’s Big Four banks announced their highest annual profits ever.

We see record-breaking profits in the energy cartels, big agribusiness, soaring profit margins in the FTSE 350 table of big companies. These aren’t “difficult economic circumstances.” It is class war.

And if Labour won’t strike a blow for workers in that war, unions will need to find another way to change our country’s direction.

Continue ReadingMorning Star: We need an emergency Budget – but there’s no relief in sight

Hunt gambles on tax as services crumble

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/hunt-gambles-tax-services-crumble

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, with his ministerial box before delivering his Budget in the Houses of Parliament, March 6, 2024.

PUBLIC services are at still greater risk as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt gambled the Tories’ election hopes on a last-ditch tax-cutting Budget.

Mr Hunt announced a 2 per cent cut in National Insurance in a bid to put more money in workers’ pockets before Britain goes to the polls later this year.

But the price will be a major squeeze in public spending in the next parliament, with many department budgets likely to fall in real terms.

The Chancellor also abolished the non-dom tax rule which lets the wealthiest avoid paying taxes on overseas earnings, a key Labour pledge, and brought more families within the scope of child benefit payments.

The Budget therefore leaves Labour more politically denuded than ever — it will either have to find other ways to raise the money it had planned for public services from scrapping the non-dom loophole, or more likely drop residual spending commitments altogether.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told MPs that Labour supported the National Insurance cut too, leaving the parties exchanging rhetorical sound and fury on economic policy but with no significant differences.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/hunt-gambles-tax-services-crumble

Continue ReadingHunt gambles on tax as services crumble

‘Pre-election gimmicks’: How trade unions reacted to the Budget

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/pre-election-gimmicks-how-trade-unions-reacted-to-the-budget/

From missed opportunities to ‘Tory hot air’, trade unions weigh in on the Spring Budget announcements

Responding to Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget statement today, union leaders have shared their thoughts on what it will mean for workers across the UK, with warnings of deepening crises in their respective industries. 

The Chancellor was condemned for failing to announce proper investment in public services, with trade union leaders accusing him of using “deeply cynical” pre-election “gimmicks”.

Union leaders had already warned the Chancellor of the need to provide extra cash for public services, as Jeremy Hunt has been blasted for falling well short of delivering for working people. 

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/pre-election-gimmicks-how-trade-unions-reacted-to-the-budget/

Continue Reading‘Pre-election gimmicks’: How trade unions reacted to the Budget

5 key takeaways from Jeremy Hunt’s budget

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/5-key-takeaways-from-jeremy-hunts-budget/

A budget totally out of step with what people want and need.

Today [yesterday] saw Chancellor Jeremy Hunt deliver his much-awaited Spring Budget. The stakes couldn’t be higher, with the economy in recession, millions struggling to make ends meet and a forthcoming general election.

In what is likely to be the last budget, and possibly the final fiscal event before the general election later this year, Hunt sought to present a rosy picture of the economy, one which is totally divorced from reality.

A budget totally out of step with what people want and need, opinion polls have repeatedly shown that the British public prefer investment in public services rather than tax cuts. There was no bold and radical plan to get the UK economy out of economic stagnation, to tackle poor productivity or to improve public services.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/5-key-takeaways-from-jeremy-hunts-budget/

Continue Reading5 key takeaways from Jeremy Hunt’s budget