Posted by Hari on Thursday, May 22, 2014 with No comments | Labels: Roundup
The rich get richer:
Britain's wealthiest DOUBLE their fortunes since the financial crash and are
now worth £519billion
The fortunes of the 1,000 richest men and women in the UK
rose by 15.4% in the last year. It also means that total wealth has doubled
since 2009, when the top 1,000 were worth a measly £258billion. The figures
were revealed in the Sunday Times Rich List. The list is based on 'identifiable
wealth' - including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or
significant shares in publicly quoted companies. It excludes bank accounts,
which the Sunday Times has no access to. Figures released by the Office for
National Statistics last week revealed that there is a monumental gap between
the rich and the poor in the UK, with the wealthiest 1 per cent owning the same
amount as the 55 per cent poorest in the UK. DAILY MAIL
Revealed: Why
millions WON'T get the £155 new state pension they're expecting
A major pledge of the new pension was that everyone who had
paid all their National Insurance contributions would be guaranteed to get £155
a week. But a Money Mail investigation into the small print of the new
flat-rate pension reveals as many as four in five older workers could miss out
on the full flat-rate state pension of £155 a week when it is introduced in
2016. And millions face losing thousands of pounds in inflation-linked
increases on company pensions. Disturbingly, not even the Government has
calculated how much less than the promised amount people will end up getting. DAILY MAIL
Miliband sets out
Labour's minimum wage plans. Tories and LibDems promise a rise too
The party will announce an exact figure - covering the years
2015 to 2020 - nearer the general election. Both the Conservatives and Liberal
Democrats have already said they want a rise in the minimum wage. However any
major increase is likely to be criticised by business groups worried that it
would drive up costs and damage competitiveness. Mr Miliband said it was a
"scandal" that there were five million people in work who "can't
make ends meet". The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Downing
Street believed that as a result of economic growth there could be a real terms
increase in the level of the minimum wage, but that it should remain a matter
for the Low Pay Commission to recommend its level. BBC NEWS
New RBS finance chief
handed £1.9m 'golden hello' reigniting controversy over bankers' 'fat cat' pay
Ewen Stevenson was awarded 584,506 shares on his first day
in the job on Monday to compensate him for payments he forfeited at his
previous employer Credit Suisse. RBS shares are currently worth 326p each, up
2.3p on the day. Stevenson will enjoy an annual package of £1.9million a year,
including a £800,000 salary, £280,000 in pension contributions, and £26,250 in
benefits. He will also receive a controversial £800,000 fixed shares
‘allowance’, used by banks including RBS to swerve the EU bonus cap. Stevenson
was recruited after Nathan Bostock resigned in December to join Santander UK
after just ten weeks in the role. The revelations turn up the heat on the state
backed bank, which is still 81 per cent owned by the taxpayer and slumped to a
£8.2billion loss last year. RBS was accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after
handing a £3.2million ‘golden hello’ to current chief executive Ross McEwan
when he joined as retail boss of the bank in August 2012. The Government last
month blocked RBS from paying bonuses twice the size of salaries - but approved
the new pay measure at Lloyds. DAILY MAIL
Ofgem penalises
Scottish Power for overcharging on energy bills
For years power firms have imposed higher charges on
customers who elect to receive a quarterly bill rather than pay by monthly
direct debit. Following an investigation, Ofgem has concluded that the price
differential charged by Scottish Power, which supplies around 5m homes, was
unfair. As a result the Glasgow-based firm has agreed to pay £750,000 to Energy
Best Deal – a public awareness campaign run by Citizen's Advice. But affected
customers will not be getting a refund. The £750,000, which is not technically
a fine, will be used to help those on low incomes reduce their bills and get
help if they are falling behind with energy payments. Last week the energy
regulator ordered rival supplier E.ON to pay £12m to its customers after an
investigation into mis-selling found "extensive poor practices". It
was the largest-ever penalty levied by Ofgem. In October 2013, Ofgem ordered
Scottish Power to pay back £8.5m to customers after an investigation found that
its doorstep and telephone sales agents had misled customers. GUARDIAN
Energy price row
reignited after SSE posts record £1.5bn annual profit
The row over high energy prices was reignited after
Britain's second largest supplier reported annual profits of more than £1.5bn.
This is despite them losing hundreds of thousands of customers following their
price hike last year. SSE said the 9.6% year-on-year increase had largely come
from its wholesale not its retail business but critics described the figures as
a "kick in the teeth" for consumers. And there was embarrassment for
energy regulator with figures showing that SSE's electricity transmission
business which is overseen by Ofgem recorded an almost 50% rise in profits to
£137m. Critics were quick to attack the company. "SSE's announcement of a
£1.55bn profit is a kick in the teeth for consumers when their prices went up
by 8.2% last year. So we're stunned that they've announced a massive profits
increase of 9.6% after losing 370,000 customers in the past year," said
Jonathan Senior, head of research at collective switching and low energy
campaign, ThisIsTheBigDeal.com. GUARDIAN
Global Swiss bank
pleads guilty to helping 'tax cheats', fined $2.6bn by US regulator
Credit Suisse’s $2.6bn payment is the highest in a US
criminal tax investigation to date. However, as part of the agreement with US
regulators, the bank will not lose its banking licence in the US. US attorney
general Eric Holder said: "The bank went to elaborate lengths to shield
itself, its employees, and the tax cheats it served, from accountability for
their criminal actions... They subverted disclosure requirements, destroyed
bank records, and concealed transactions involving undeclared accounts by
limiting withdrawal amounts and using offshore credit and debit cards to
repatriate funds." Since 2011 US authorities have indicted eight Credit
Suisse employees who helped clients evade taxes. US prosecutors are also
chasing more than a dozen other Swiss banks for allegedly helping wealthy
Americans dodge US taxes, and at the press conference, they hinted that there
would be more settlements to come. In 2009, another Swiss bank, UBS, settled
similar charges with US regulators for $780m as well as an agreement in which
the bank would give US authorities the names of its so-called
"secret" account holders. BBC NEWS
Vince Cable warns
booming house prices are destabilising UK economy
Business secretary Vince Cable has warned booming house
prices are destabilising the economy and any sane person should worry about
what is going to happen when interest rates rise as the economy returns to
normal. He also warned that household debt in relation to income is set to
become significantly higher in the UK than almost anywhere else, and contains
serious dangers that represent "a real, real, real worry" for
policymakers and homeowners. He said levels of household debt were forecast to
surpass those reached before the financial crash in 2008. His comments have
emerged as a study predicted that one in 10 mortgage payers risk becoming
trapped on unaffordable deals as interest rates rise over the next four years. GUARDIAN
HMRC says £10bn, but
tax expert says we lose £40bn each year from “hidden” sales
The Treasury is losing £40bn a year due to a shadow economy
where firms and individuals deliberately hide sales from the taxman, according
to a leading tax justice campaigner, Richard Murphy. He said it is wrong to
think most of the tax lost to the shadow economy related to self-employed
workers. The lion's share, he says, is from 1.1m companies that tell HMRC they
trade in the UK at an average loss of about £10,000, and from a further 400,000
companies he estimates trade in the UK but do not file a tax return. The report
has been swiftly rejected by HMRC as "seriously flawed", although Murphy
said it had been peer reviewed by academics and other tax experts. Murphy
himself is an accountant and tax specialist who until March 2013 sat on an HRMC
panel of anti-avoidance experts. He is leading a campaign questioning the
accuracy of HRMC figures on Britain's tax gap. Future reports due this summer
will include a challenge to HRMC's figures on tax avoidance, which do not
capture the activities of many multinationals shifting profits from high-tax
jurisdictions such as the UK to offshore tax havens. The reports will also
challenge HMRC figures on inheritance tax due, which he argues greatly
underestimated the scale Britain's property and financial wealth. GUARDIAN
Backlash over banks'
fee-paying accounts: Complaints triple amid fears of new mis-selling scandal
Around 9m people have a packaged account in the UK. But in
an echo of the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal, many are paying for
perks they never knew existed, do not want or cannot benefit from. As a result,
thousands of customers that have paid up to £300 a year for the perks have had
their complaints routinely rejected by the high street banks, forcing them to
take their case to the independent disputes arbitrator, the Financial Ombudsman
Service (FOS). 78% of these complaints were upheld in the customer's favour
after being rejected by the bank. Banks are keen to sell them because they are
far more profitable than ordinary current accounts, which are free if in
credit. Typical packaged account benefits include travel insurance, breakdown
cover and mobile phone insurance. Some also offer free music downloads or free
National Trust days out. But pensioners, for example, may find they are unable
to claim on their travel insurance policy because the small print contains an
age limit of 65. The FOS said a growing number of complaints are from customers
who said their accounts had been 'upgraded' without their knowledge. The total
number of all complaints against banks were up by 1% on the previous year to a
record of 512,167. Banks have already paid out over £14bn in compensation for
mis-selling PPI to customers. Critics say the level of customer discontent over
packaged accounts shows that the banks have a 'rotten culture' and that lenders
may become embroiled in a new mis-selling scandal. DAILY MAIL
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