Panorama Britain on the Fiddle

tottybum

margaretclare wrote: »

Yes, wrong. DH and I are pensioners but we still pay tax on our pensions income. In addition, we pay VAT on everything else, petrol, utilities, you name it. The only thing which is VAT-free is fresh food - all processed food carries VAT.

Yes I know, but on the whole, benefit claimants and OAP's are taking more out of the pot than is going in.

As the country can't (for good economic reasons) increase the amount going in, somewhere down the line the amount going out has to be cut. The first port of call are those that are at the bottom of the chain - taking more out than they put in - hence the cuts to the Benefits system - quite simple to understand, it's pure economics.

As for pensioners paying tax. Both of us pay tax on our pensions and other income, at the rate of approx £3000 a year - £58 a week. We are personally paying for approx 85% of one ESA claimant on the assessment rate. And we are well over 65 years of age.
Plus we also pay VAT as well!

gravitytolls

tottybum wrote: »

So presumably using that argument, you think that those that were caught on camera and prosecuted (the referee guy, the guy playing football, the guy carrying furniture to a removal van etc) were wrongly convicted as they are entitled to carry out some forms of exercise?

No, I'm merely pointing out the folly of expecting everybody with a debilitating condition to be cocooned inside their home. Reffing a footie match once or twice a week is hardly akin to carting bricks around a building site is it?

Or the equivalent of, before you take my words at face value and berate me for assuming everyone works on a building site. Sigh.

aliasojo

gravitytolls wrote: »

Or the equivalent of, before you take my words at face value and berate me for assuming everyone works on a building site. Sigh.

totty wont be berating anyone, he's been PPR'd. :rotfl:.

Richie-from-the-Boro

aliasojo wrote: »

totty wont be berating anyone, he's been PPR'd. :rotfl:.

Regardless of Andy's [STRIKE]Totty's[/STRIKE] attempt at this incarnation of 'trolling' he will unfortunately be back under a different nym to wind everyone up again in the future, but for now maybe peace and reasonableness will return for a while.


Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust, eh
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust

pstuart

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Regardless of Andy's [STRIKE]Totty's[/STRIKE] attempt at this incarnation of 'trolling' he will unfortunately be back under a different nym to wind everyone up again in the future, but for now maybe peace and reasonableness will return for a while.


Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust, eh
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust

Just wonder how those people who thanked it for the 'useful posts' feel

Brassedoff

ddraig1 wrote: »

It makes me sick! When did it become socially acceptable to bash a minority, with the use of lies, half truths and under hand reporting, just so that a corrupt government can save a few quid in their budget, by harasing and bullying people who are genuinley in need of help and fiancial support.

Replace disabled with "race", "colour" or "religion" and it would not happen as a whole industry would spring into action.

Hitler started on those who "suffered from diseases considered hereditary, such as mental illness (schizophfrenia and manic depression), retardation ("congenital feeble-mindedness"), any physical deformithy, epilepsy, blindness, deafness and bodily weakness". (sorry for the terminology, it is a direct quote from the Law the Nazi's passed).

Anyone see themselves in on of the groups above? The BBC's programme was just a form of propaganda that a body who relies on Government funding is now starting to push (just see the news programmes) on behalf of the ConLibs. I know we cannot afford many things. At £30 billion per year, fraud in the UK is more than twice as high as thought, with tax evasion costing the public purse over £15 billion per year and benefit fraud just over £1 billion. Based predominantly on 2008 data, the National Fraud Authority’s first ever Annual Fraud Indicator found fraud against the public sector accounts for 58% of the total fraud in the UK per year.*

Source: HM Government

moose1982

From the programme, I would like to see more people (PCs, PSCOs, Parking Wardens etc) checking Blue Badges more often. Most checks only take a couple of seconds and I'm pretty sure virtually everyone who has one would love to see this happen. We need the spaces provided, we want the spaces available when we need them (but if they are taken by another genuine user, then fair enough) and we want the abuse to go down. It's pointless for council's to be providing more spaces, as they are likely to just be abused.

margaretclare

Yes I know, but on the whole, benefit claimants and OAP's are taking more out of the pot than is going in.

Can't speak for benefits claimants and I object to the term OAP, which is years out of date and is derogatory. Pensioners, retirees, anything else, but please not use OAP.

That said, DH and I, who are retired people on pensions income, actually spend on different things than what we used to spend on. Yesterday we had the tree man come and do things which next-door man does for himself. That put a few hundred into the local economy. We also pay a gardener to do things that others do themselves - again, money into the local economy. We still pay for petrol, car servicing, food, utilities, we pay council tax. We no longer have children at school - that's a cost to younger generations that we don't have. So, how are we 'taking more out of the pot than putting in'?

pstuart

margaretclare wrote: »

Can't speak for benefits claimants and I object to the term OAP, which is years out of date and is derogatory. Pensioners, retirees, anything else, but please not use OAP.

That said, DH and I, who are retired people on pensions income, actually spend on different things than what we used to spend on. Yesterday we had the tree man come and do things which next-door man does for himself. That put a few hundred into the local economy. We also pay a gardener to do things that others do themselves - again, money into the local economy. We still pay for petrol, car servicing, food, utilities, we pay council tax. We no longer have children at school - that's a cost to younger generations that we don't have. So, how are we 'taking more out of the pot than putting in'?

You are quite right, but your initial quote was from a troll winding you up.

Brassedoff

Just had this response from the BBC


Dear Mr Brassedoff

Thanks for contacting us regarding ‘Panorama: Britain on the Fiddle.’

We have received a wide range of feedback about this programme and feel it is worth highlighting that considerable correspondence to us has been generated by online lobby activity. Bearing in mind the pressure on resources, the response below strives to address the majority of concerns raised but we apologise in advance if not all of the specific points you have mentioned have been answered in the manner you prefer. Please be assured we have raised your concerns with the programme and have done our best to issue a substantive response.

Panorama's ‘Britain on the Fiddle’ looked at a number of issues surrounding public sector fraud, including benefit fraud, the nature and extent of the unlawful subletting of council properties, the issue of identity fraud and the misuse of blue badges. The programme also followed the work of some local authority fraud investigators and by doing so revealed how time consuming and costly inquiries into suspected fraud can be.

The programme made it clear that fraud effectively takes money from all of us, especially those in genuine need. On benefit fraud, including incapacity benefit specifically, the programme stressed that most people on benefits really need them and don't cheat the system.

Far from concentrating on the economically deprived, the programme featured, for example, the case of a man claiming benefits to pay for a council flat whilst owning and running a pub business many miles away - travelling between both destinations in a luxury car.

Furthermore, the film featured fraud investigators tackling the misuse of blue badges. Many people have since written to Panorama to express their gratitude to the programme for highlighting the problem which causes them distress and much inconvenience.

We don’t agree that the cases featured in our film were extreme or were not broadly indicative of instances of benefit fraud. That is not the experience of the local authority fraud investigators who were kind enough to allow us to film their work. Dr Mark Button, from the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies said in the programme:

"I think a lot of organisations are not realistic about the levels of fraud that they face because in any organisation there are large levels of fraud that are undetected. So if they rely on detected levels of fraud they are not getting the picture of the levels of fraud within their organisation."

Emphasising this, it is important to note that just recently the Audit Commission released its most up to date figures for detected fraud against local government which explains that these figures are only the tip of a very large iceberg.

We believe the programme explored a subject which is clearly in the public interest and did so in a fair and impartial manner.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Kind Regards
BBC Complaints
https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

So, I take it as a no then and that they reject the general complaint?