| Man jailed for rhino horn smuggling bid A man who pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle a rhino horn worth hundreds of thousands of pounds through Manchester Airport has been sentenced to 12 months in prison. bbc.co.uk |
New carnivore discovered in Madagascar - and she doesn't look very happy about it A new species of carnivore, that looks like a 'scruffy little ferret', has been discovered in Madagascar. telegraph.co.uk |
Benefit and tax cheats face new clampdown Welfare minister David Freud warns of tough penalties and criminal gangs having their assets seizedThe government is to employ 200 additional investigators to target benefit and tax cheats in an attempt to claw back some of the £5bn lost each year through fraud and error.The move is part of plans published tomorrow by Lord David Freud, the minister for welfare reform. Other initiatives will include a "mobile regional task force" to investigate every claim in high fraud areas, more asset seizures and data-matching techniques to spot patterns of fraud. There will also be "one strike, two strike and three strike" rules, which will see multiple offenders face a three-year benefit ban."Fraud and error is costing the government and the taxpayer £5bn a year – this is unfair and unacceptable," Freud said. "We are stepping up our efforts to catch the benefit and tax cheats who are stealing money meant for the most vulnerable in our society."When people are convicted we will get back the money we are owed by introducing tough punishments and stripping the assets of criminal gangs. My message to them is that benefit fraud is a crime that just doesn't pay."Other measures will include abolishing cautions as a penalty for fraud and introducing civil penalties of £50 for minor offences. There will also be a drive to reduce error in the system.Of the £5.2bn lost each year, fraud accounts for just £1.5bn across benefits and tax credits. In addition, £1.1bn of losses occurs from official error, and a further £1.1bn from customer error.The Department for Work and Pensions is also planning to name and shame offenders in their local areas. Tomorrow it will start by releasing two examples of people found guilty of fraud.One is Sean Christopher Hill, who claimed £10,000 in benefits by saying he was too sick to work. In fact, he had started working as a doorman and later became a nightclub bouncer.He was ordered to repay the money and carry out 200 hours community service.WelfareState benefitsAnushka Asthanaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Ocado expanding to the South West Ocado to start delivering to homes in the south west of England and south Wales from March of next year. bbc.co.uk |
George Osborne 'exaggerated debt crisis risk' says Nobel laureate Economist Christopher Pissarides says chancellor's swingeing cuts package is taking unnecessary risks with economyGeorge Osborne was accused today by Britain's new Nobel prize-winning economist of having "exaggerated" the risk of a Greek-style debt crisis.Professor Christopher Pissarides said that the prospects of a sovereign debt crisis hitting Britain - used by the chancellor to justify his spending cuts - were "minimal".In an article for the Sunday Mirror, he warned that Osborne's swingeing cuts package, announced last week in the Commons, was taking "unnecessary risks" with the economy.The chancellor has said drastic action to tackle the deficit was necessary to avoid a Greek-style collapse in investor confidence, leaving Britain facing punitive interest rates to finance its borrowing.However, Pissarides said he believed that the chancellor had overstated the dangers."It is important to avoid this 'sovereign risk'. But in my view Britain is a long way from such a threat, and the chancellor has exaggerated the sovereign risks that are threatening the country," he said.Osborne should have been more concerned about the current weakness of the UK economy, he said."Unemployment is high and job vacancies few. By taking the action that the chancellor outlined in his statement, this situation might well become worse," he said."These risks were not necessary at this point. He could have outlined a clear deficit-reduction plan over the next five years, postponing more of the cuts, until recovery became less fragile."The 'sovereign risk' would have been minimal."His comments were echoed by Labour leaders Ed Miliband who accused the government of driving through big cuts for ideological reasons."Of course the deficit is high and needs to be brought down. Our approach, based on halving it over four years, would bring it down every year," he said in an article for the Observer."But the idea that we are about to go bankrupt is pure political spin to justify a familiar ideological project of a smaller state."In his latest podcast on the No 10 website, David Cameron acknowledged that the country faced a "hard road", but insisted that the measures to tackle the deficit were essential."I don't underestimate how difficult this will be. But we are doing what we are doing because it is the right thing to do – right by our economy, right for our country," he said."We had to bring some responsibility back to public spending because if we didn't, Britain was looking down the barrel of economic ruin."The prime minister said he was committed to ensuring the cuts were administered in a way that was "fair" while at the same time focusing what resources were available on boosting entrepreneurship and wealth creation."We didn't just do the right thing, we did it the right way. We've gone about these spending cuts in a way that is fair and in a way that promotes economic growth and new jobs," he said."Fair because if you look at the figures, you'll see the highest earners aren't just paying more in cash, they are paying more as a percentage of their income. As we promised, those with broader shoulders are bearing a greater burden."His comments reflect the acute sensitivity within the coalition to accusations that Osborne's spending review, announced on Wednesday, would hit the poor hardest.Analysis by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies found that – apart from the richest 2%, who would be caught by tax rises announced under Labour – the burden of cuts would fall disproportionately on the poorest.Spending review 2010George OsborneTax and spendingEconomic policyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |