ATOS

[shetlandpeat]

 

However, all fraud is wrong whoever it is perpetrated by. In professional life and with benefit claimants, systems should always be in place to catch out those committing fraud wherever it is committed.

 

We are not disagreeing with you, it is a shame you do not realise that and stop repeating your, and our sentiments, which, in this case, are the same, fraud is wrong.

 

There are mitigating circumstances, though I hope that someone who is paid £100,000 and steals £10,000 is treated with more harshness than someone on say £10,000 and steals £1000.

 

The other side is that these folk, many who find difficulties and have not had a good fortune break, or would not know how to deal with good fortune are pilloried as the scum and leaches of our society.

It is far more than not having a job and needing help.

 

It is the constant attack on those who have the least.

 

Those who find education a barrier and not a help, those who cannot help themselves and rely on others. In some cases those who may not have the will to take on a fight for their rights and be treated as a human being.

[daveh]

 

There are mitigating circumstances, though I hope that someone who is paid £100,000 and steals £10,000 is treated with more harshness than someone on say £10,000 and steals £1000.

 

 

There are big inconsistencies on the punishment dealt out as evidenced by those cases I have highlighted. Some are given custodial sentences, others are given suspended sentences whilst others have to carry out "community service". This seems to be down to an individual judge and I feel that it does not really send out a good enough message to act as a proper deterrent to those who are caught.

At the moment, the sums involved, taking into account the defendant's financial position, do not seem to have any too much correlation with the sentence being passed.

[paulb]

sorry i have to disagree with you peat theft is just that it should make no difference. would it not be interesting if we got to know who the 50,000 were.

 

obviously a man that is hungry has a more moral defence than a greedy banker.

 

after the news that ukips leader had a trust fund in the isle of man. it should be a legal requirement that those in public office are barred from holding accounts/trusts or other saving schemes for either themselves or others in foreign or tax havens.

 

that way thatchers estate would have paid £2.4 million

that would have paid a hundred nurses wages for a year.

 

while on that subject no more trust for the super rich to hide behind when they pop there clogs.

[shetlandpeat]

sorry i have to disagree with you peat theft is just that it should make no difference. would it not be interesting if we got to know who the 50,000 were.

 

.

 

So if the fraud was committed by someone with learning difficulties? They should be as punished as those who fully understood the ramifications of what they were commiting? BS paul

[paulb]

come on most fraud is committed by folks that know what they are doing.

 

also depends what you call a learning disability.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/black-economy-leaves-16342bn-hole-in-britains-tax-accounts-2081696.html

 

42 billion is not paid in taxes in the black economy. that would nearly pay a 1/3 of the nhs budget or half the education one.

[shetlandpeat]

Most fraud is unpublished Paul. That fact needs to be kept in the picture. Also, I would guess more fraud is not detected or reported.

 

It seems however that LAs can publish details of folk who do commit some fraud with benefits yet those with money can keep their crimes out of the public eye.

 

The biggest problem, if folk need certain benefits to lead a good quality of life, then a test that will turn their lives upside down even after they have worked so hard to get along with any disability will cause additional problems. Some put heart and soul into the community.

 

Getting the right social care has become a major headache. With cuts by councils now having a serious impact on the NHS. The latest figure is this is costing the NHS £545,000 a day.

 

Also, a case we have here is a young girl who cannot do a thing for herself being denied the right type of housing to allow her family to care for her because of cuts and an unwillingness to do anything. However, the authorities did offer to fit additional grab rails.

 

ATOS start the problems that the other authorities have to address down the line.

[Ghostrider]

The other side is that these folk, many who find difficulties and have not had a good fortune break, or would not know how to deal with good fortune are pilloried as the scum and leaches of our society.

 

Pilloried by whom, exactly?

[shetlandpeat]

Gideon Osborne for one.

[daveh]

Gideon Osborne for one.

 

Can you please give me a link where George Osborne is "pilloring" the folk you referred to? I would like to see a direct quote where he is doing so.

I think that you may have been reading the Daily Mirror recently a bit too much?

[Ghostrider]

Gideon Osborne for one.

 

I think I'm going to need another clue, I don't think I'm familiar with anyone known as that.

[daveh]

^^

Shetlandpeat seems to be, though.

[go.oot.by.dog]

Church of England faces fresh clash with ministers over welfare reform

 

The Church of England is facing a fresh clash with the Coalition over welfare reform after publishing a new report accusing ministers of acting as if they were deliberately trying to “destabilise†society.

 

In a highly critical analysis of the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s overhaul of the benefits system, the established Church questions the “moral†case for such reforms in a time of austerity.

 

The poor and vulnerable, it claims, are bearing a “disproportionate share of the burden†from recession yet being “squeezed†ever tighter by the Government - while the rich are allowed to escape “largely unscathedâ€.

 

At the same time the Government has deliberately stoked up rhetoric characterising benefit claimants as “scroungers†and workers as “strivers†to gain “political capitalâ€, it insists.

 

The comments come in a policy paper prepared for members of the Church’s General Synod which meets in York in two weeks time, where welfare will be one of the main items on the agenda alongside the Church’s difficulties over women bishops.

 

It comes three months after a bitter confrontation between the Government and Church when 43 bishops, backed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, wrote to The Sunday Telegraph voicing concern over welfare reform.

 

Full article here -

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10136435/Church-of-England-faces-fresh-clash-with-ministers-over-welfare-reform.html

 

A good article and what is even more surprising is that it is in the Torygraph

[go.oot.by.dog]

One Food Bank Opening In UK Every Four Days

 

Food banks were almost unheard of just a few years ago - now they are being opened in the UK at the rate of one every four days.

 

http://news.sky.com/story/11603/one-food-bank-opening-in-uk-every-four-days

 

And meanwhile the pigs with their snouts in the trough -

 

Health Ministers Spend £120,000 On Tea And Biscuits In Six Months

 

Health ministers have come under fire after it was revealed their department spent over £100,000 on tea and biscuits in the last six months alone, as the NHS continued to shoulder brutal cuts.

 

MPs accused politicians of "living on another planet" after it was revealed the Department of Health spent £119,808 on refreshments since January, according to a response to a parliamentary question.

 

This works out at roughly £1,500 a day on tea breaks.

 

Full article here -

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/22/tea-and-biscuits-ministers-bill-nhs-_n_3482593.html

 

But remember "We are all in this together" .......... I dont think so

[go.oot.by.dog]

PEOPLES ASSEMBLY June 22nd Francesca Martinez tells it as it is.

[Mattie]

Francesca Martinez,

Fantastic lady and what a great speech she gave.