MSE News: Money Advice Service and pension advice services to be replaced by new body

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The Money Advice Service (MAS) and two existing pension advice services will be merged into a new single body...

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'Money Advice Service and pension advice services to be replaced by new single body'

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Pincher

Just outsource it to the highest bidder.

Standard Life will pay the Treasury £10 a head, say.
They can then make £30 per referral to financial advisors.

If Wonga gets wind of it, I'm sure they will pay £20.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

You'd think that, rather than creating a complete new service, government would take one that works already and provides this advice (like National Debtline) and fund its expansion...

Pincher

If you hire cleaners directly, you have to pay them minimum living wage. If you outsource it, the company can abuse its employees anyway it wants to, and you get the office cleaned for half the money. When Panorama does an expose, the government can just say they are appalled, and hire the next outsourcing company that takes over the same slave labour force.

If you shift the job of monitoring the mentally ill to an outsourcing company, who don't do anything for taking the money, and the patient stabs people, or more often, kills themselves in depression, and Panorama does an expose, the government can say they are appalled, and hire another company that does nothing for the money. Why? It's much cheaper per patient when you hire a company that can under bid by miles because they don't intend to do anything.

If you outsource the job of sending out energy saving light bulbs to a company, so the government can claim we saved millions of tonnes of carbon emissions to the EU, and then Panorama finds the company sent out a few light bulbs, and sold the rest to save on admin, the government can say we are appalled, and hope the EU doesn't make us save the carbon all over again. The company can under bid by millions because it just sends out ten thousand light bulbs instead of ten million. This saves millions on postage alone, and a lot more on admin and packing.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

... all of which is only of passing relevance to the scrapping of a money-sink that adopted a "not-invented-here" approach that failed refused to acknowledge existing services, websites, tools etc. that did was MAS was trying to do... only better. It was rightly pilloried by the Treasury, by this website's founder. I wouldn't lament its passing.

I just wonder why it was set up in the first place, when that same money could have vastly expanded existing, good, services.

Pincher

To actually set up a good service, you need to set up training facilities, certification mechanisms, ongoing monitoring of service quality, not to mention the infrastructure both physical (call centre, IT) and managerial. All of which to provide a FREE service?

Whenever I hear things are running well, and providing good service, I think:
"So it's costing the government a packet."
Some minister is looking at this budget, and saying:
"How can I CUT it." :eek:

Much cheaper to appoint G4S to recruit lonely retired OAPs with SKYPE who need to chat, and just transfer calls to them.

Job advert: Can you add, and have your own computer with internet connection? No pay, but being able to help people is its own reward. We will be giving out prizes to the volunteers with the best user feedback. A toaster, a blender, the sky's the limit!

Remember the Olympics? G4S was rounding up total strangers on the street to handle security.