A SENIOR Conservative and Finance spokesman Rob Gledhill has accused Thurrock’s Labour administration of supporting a “Cheats Charter” over lack of investment in fraud detection.
At last weeks council meeting Cllr Gledhill praised the small Fraud team for detecting £1 million of fraud last year but added that a third of fraud referrals from 2010-11 and half of those from the current year remained un-investigated.
Cllr Gledhill said “At the budget we put forward an increase of £100,000 to help increase fraud detection across the Council but Labour rejected it. This would have helped increase the capacity and skills base in a Corporate Fraud team to help protect the public purse.
However it was clear from Labour’s underwhelming response that, as there was no form of Government incentive, they were not going to do anything. It is an outrage, surely the biggest incentive is seeing taxpayers’ money protected not stolen by fraudsters? It clearly shows their ignorance of the Proceeds of Crime Act”.
“It is estimated that the nationally every adult is defrauded out of £765 per year by those committing fraud. So far this year the Labour-run Council has spent about £1.80 per resident on fraud detection. The Proceeds of Crime Act allows investigating bodies to keep large portions of recovered assets and money on conviction and is used by many local authorities to help cover costs of improving fraud detection.
Cllr Gledhill added “Fraud at Thurrock isn’t confined to Housing benefit, it includes claiming Council Tax discounts illegally, illegal sub-letting of Council properties, blue badge misuse and much, much more. For Labour to say they are not going to invest in preventing this is nothing short of supporting a cheats’ charter. They simply must do better”.
It’s simply about fairness. Once again, its the Conservatives on the side of the ordinary, hard working person who does the right thing.
Cllr Gledhill is right to bring this up. It shouldn’t take a government incentive for the council to spend money making sure that everyone are paying their way in Thurrock.
Lets hope the Conservatives in Thurrock have learned lessons from the last time they over zealously investigated housing benefit fraud and ended up paying compensation to 89 Thurrock residents who were wrongly prosecuted for fraud. I understand some lost homes and some had police records.
How much did that little mistake cost the taxpayers of Thurrock Cllr Gledhill?
Cllr Gledhill and Mr Gadsby are you as enthusiatic to pursue those, such as the rich, who employ “every trick in the book” to avoid paying income tax etc. Whilst these tax avoiders are not breaking the law they are depriving the country of revenue which they have a moral duty to pay. These rich tax dodgers may claim they are not doing anything illegal but surely it is unethical to seek every means of avoiding paying taxes but demand everyone else should pay their due. They, and I suspect both of you, do not consider their tax avoidance as fraudulent bu there are many hardworking ordinary people who will percieve it as such, “a rose by any other name, is still a rose” Mr Gadsby, your comment “doing the right thing” has a hollow ring to it.
Unfortunately Mr Perrin you are confusing two slightly different things. Fraud is a criminal offence, and the activities listed in the final paragraph are all illegal. Legal tax avoidance is not a crime. Almost everyone personally tries to reduce the amount of tax they pay. Some of my savings are in an ISA. I do this to avoid tax. As do millions of other people, and I think that is uncontroversial.
What is an issue is the exceedingly wealthy going to extreme complex lengths to reduce their tax liabilities – eg offshore accounts, complex trust funds etc. The Government should reduce these loopholes and pursue anyone who breaks the law – however rich they are. However, these are not council issues, and therefore they are not covered in the councillor’s press release.
There is no moral duty to pay tax. Tax should be reduced so that everybody pays the least possible amount. All this bashing the rich is also absurd. Even with everybody paying the same rate of tax the wealthy will always pay more and contribute more money to the country than the poor. It is not fair that somebody has to pay a higher rate of tax just because they earn more money, it’s stupid to think otherwise. There is no fairness at all in the tax system.
Not to mention the more money you have in your pocket the more you spend, set up businesses, open shops, buy property etc which all boosts the economy.
gray64, if, as you say, there is no moral duty to pay tax, why are people sent to prison for tax avoidance,indicating that in addition to a moral duty there is a legal duty? I was not “bashing the rich” I was suggesting it was immoral for people to seek every avenue to avoid paying tax, I call that “cheating” the system. I said in my previous comment that, whilst some of these tax avoiders may not be breaking the law there are many who do. I agree with Mr Gadsby with regard to the second paragraph of his comment and am pleasantly surprised to see a Tory advocating that the Government should “reduce” these loopholes. gray64, as you believe it is not fair some people have to pay a higher rate of tax just because they earn more money and to think otherwise is “stupid”, I would point out that it is called “Income Tax” precisely because it is related to income, stupid.
Sounds like the Labour supporters are all in favour of fraud as long as your not rich.
Mr Perrin, you are confusing different issues. I maintain that there is no moral duty to pay tax. Note the word moral. It is not the same as having a legal duty to pay income tax. People are imprisoned for not fulfilling their legal duty to pay tax, they are not imprisoned for failing their moral duty to pay tax. As to your last sentence, once again you fail to comprehend my point. I said that it isn’t fair to pay a higher rate of tax, in other words a higher percentage of tax. My point is that, even at the lower rate of tax rich people pay far more than anybody else. it is indeed stupid to not realise and understand that. Why is it fair to penalise high earners by charging them a higher rate of tax? I maintain that it isn’t. Lastly, whilst I was pretty sure it was called income tax I am grateful for the gentle reminder.