Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 25th October)

Not just Starbucks! Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Apple pay UK tax rates of just zero to 0.54% 
Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz claims its British operation makes losses and therefore owes no tax here. True? There are legal methods multinationals use to "increase" UK costs and move actual profits into a tax haven: charging the UK operation “royalty fees”; push profits around their global supply chain; loading UK subsidiaries with high-interest loans. DAILY MAIL
(“I was so shocked I spat into my own latte, to save them the bother,” said one Starbucks customer.)


By the next election one million working people will depend on housing benefit to afford rent
The National Housing Federation reports an alarming rise of in-work recipients of housing benefits. The number has more than doubled to 903,440 in under four years. Planned cuts to housing benefit go against government claims that they are on the side of hard working people.  But the government replied, “Under our reforms those on housing benefit can still afford up to a third of homes on the local rental market." GUARDIAN

(A third = the bathroom and one bedroom. But not the living room, kitchen, or anything else as two other hard working families will be sleeping there!)

Unsophisticated investors were the 'golden prize' at Goldman, says former employee
Goldman Sachs employees deliberately sold the most complex financial product to the least sophisticated investors, according to a scathing insider account of life at the Wall Street bank. Goldmans dismissed the book as bedtime reading for conspiracy theorists. TELEGRAPH
(...but essential "how to" reading for new recruits at Goldman Sachs.)

Banks face thousands more "rate swap" mis-selling claims, say the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks
The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks have decided to widen the products on which they will consider paying out compensation. 40,000 complex interest rate derivatives were mis-sold to small businesses, pushing them to the verge of ruin. Now that number may double. Compensation estimates range from £10bn to £20bn. TELEGRAPH

Women win equal pay compensation fight against Birmingham council
More than 170 women who worked in low paying jobs for Birmingham City Council claimed they were paid less than their male colleagues. The Supreme Court has ruled they can now have their discrimination case heard in the courts. This means that equal pay disputes, against any empoyer, can be heard in the civil courts and not just employment tribunals. Claims can now go back 6 years instead of six months of someone leaving their job. INDEPENDENT

David Cameron: "prisoners will not get the vote under this government"
David Cameron has promised prisoners will not get the vote on his watch, despite a ruling from the Europe that an outright ban is illegal. TELEGRAPH
("Prison? Criminal record? Shame? It was the sheer terror of losing my vote that put me right back on the straight and narrow," said nobody at all.)

Fewer car crashes but more whiplash claims

Police figures show a 20% decrease in number of accidents involving injuries since 2006, yet a 40% increase in third party injury (TPI) claims, most of which are for whiplash. Whiplash claims are prone to fraud because they are virtually impossible to disprove. Claims management companies are blamed for talking people into making bogus claims. TELEGRAPH
("If the banks won't give back all the money they've stolen from us, we'll steal it back ourselves," said one man cradling his flopping head unconvincingly.)