Government reveals new debt recovery firm – Accountingweb via glynismillward189
The government has launched a new public/private debt collection agency for government departments including HMRC, Accountingweb tells us (and thanks to Glynis Millward for reposting it).
Now couple of things here lovely readers…
1) As Mike Fleming commented on the accountingweb site:-
Equifax ltd is owned by Equifax EUA ltd and that company is owned by Equifax Luxembourg (no3)SARL
I do hope that HMRC have carried out the necessary due diligence on their new partners paying particular attention to the Luxembourg connections and if this is Company number 3 how many more are there and what is their purpose? God forbid that it could have anything to do with tax avoidance?
I am of course sure that HMRC have covered this point in their pre-partnership discussions and we all have nothing to be concerned about.
2) The article states; “… at least £22bn was owed to the government and that the approach to collecting debt, such as tax and benefit overpayments, was inconsistent and often ineffective.”
Hmmm, yes, inconsistent and ineffective because the government has got rid of thousands upon thousands of experienced civil servants, so the ones who are left are constantly moved around to cover business critical areas such as self assessment submission and tax credit renewal deadlines.
3) Its been proven time and time again within the public sector departments that use private debt collectors, that they cherry pick the cases they wish to debt collect from such as low level debts experienced by the lone parent claiming tax credits, the pensioner who owes money on their self assessment and other vulnerable groups such as the disabled. The more complex, difficult to collect debts are dealt with by existing civil servants.
4) PCS (the largest civil service union) state that this will cost the taxpayer more in the long run.
Not that the tories will be worried about that of course; they are experts at squandering taxpayers’ money!
Integrated Debt Services Limited, which is jointly owned by the government and TDX Group (an Equifax company, will provide a single point of access to a wide range of debt management and collection services.
According to the Cabinet Office, the debt collection JV “will use a range of proven and effective debt management services to support debt recovery with a focus on increasing returns, while using detailed analytics so that individuals are treated appropriately and fairly. It will provide government with the ability to access best-value private sector knowledge and expertise and departments are expected to sign call off agreements early in 2015.”
Debt owed to the government stands at some £22.6bn and originates from many sources including unpaid fees, taxes, fines and loans, ineligible benefits or grants and unrecovered costs from court cases.
The service will initially be available to six departments including HMRC, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office, the Student Loans Company, the Legal Aid Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
It will also offer services to the wider public sector, for example, local authorities.
The ICAEW Tax Faculty noted how the government has already been using private sector organisations for debt collection, which has been found to achieve significant improvements in recovery yields.
“The idea of the new cross-government service is to achieve further improvements by offering one consistent debt recovery tool for departments,” it said.
In February last year the National Audit Office said at least £22bn was owed to the government and that the approach to collecting debt, such as tax and benefit overpayments, was inconsistent and often ineffective.
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sold down the river once again by the pawn brokers who sadly how many have fingers in this pie jeff3
yet another level of harassment for the vulnerable, because thats who this will target, absolutely ZERO chance of them going after the real crooks….
was just thinking same Ian Jd Andrews…they seem to have 2 partitions in their heads.(wont call them brains.. brains are used.. they don’t use theirs) …there is us on one side, them n their banker/millionaire mates on tother..that side is shut off, locked,..they don’t think about it. but the rest are thought of constantly in terms of what can we do next to get rid of a few more plebs of this earth.
No need for any form of Taxation or debt its all being deliberately orchestrated against the people. The problem is the government does not control or create the money it goes to the privately owned Bank of England cap in hand and borrows the money. The Bank of England then dictates the terms in which the money can be spent. The government then tells the people they have to pay it back with interest.
The panacea we are all looking for is The Bradbury Pound. Money created has credit, no need for austerity at all.
As I understand it, there is a need for taxation as without it, our currency would have no validity at all.
The point that Terry Allen is making is all about the the founding fathers or should I say financiers of the USA and their antecedents played tricks on their own people. Especially in 1913 at Christmas time when most Congressmen had gone home they enacted a Federal law related to taxation which was never ratified by all the states. From then till now all taxes collected have been illegal. Despite that millions have gone to prison and been vilified for resisting. The Federal Reserve is a private bank just like the Bank of England who lend their own governments their own money and charge them interest for the pleasure. The government in turn tax their people to pay the interest which makes all the banks shareholders very very rich and the peoples very very poor. Shimples
There is an excellent piece in the latest ‘Eye’ on just this issue. Francis Maude himself gave the ‘getting a grip on debt’ announcement, and as the Eye pointed out, perhaps he should have done a little background checking as to how Equifax has shaved a tidy £1 million off it’s tax bill by using the very tax avoidance systems it may well be asked to investigate? A teensy conflict of interest perhaps?
As other articles have pointed out, this company(ies?) will not be chasing serious fraudsters (ie businessmen) owing millions, oh no, it will be after hard core debtors like the disabled, the elderly and Students.
Phew! They must be hard…
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Aaron%20Russo%20Federal%20Tax&qs=n&form=QBVR&pq=aaron%20russo%20federal%20tax&sc=0-15&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&mid=60D826B05DC4FEC4483360D826B05DC4FEC44833
A previous post I made about a film director and investigative journalist Aaron Russo did a major expose of US federal tax laws and their implications this link should take you to it
Privatising HMRC now eh.This is very bad. More of our taxes going into the privateers pockets
They will just go after the poor and the people who have been forced to accept loans to set up their own businesses rather then be used as workfare slaves or be forced to beg and steal.