http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/Working Family Tax Creditshttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/rss.gifhttp://www.taxcc.org/http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/rss.gif8637Alan the Geordiehttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1255&REPLY_ID=1058910Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:19:05 +0100samthehttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1357&REPLY_ID=1058710Fri, 9 Jan 2009 20:28:33 +0100Alan the Geordiehttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1344&REPLY_ID=1058610Fri, 9 Jan 2009 12:45:36 +0100Alan the Geordiehttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=136010Fri, 9 Jan 2009 12:36:12 +0100
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2009/01/09/email-law-attack-on-civil-liberty-115875-21027299/

9/01/2009

Looming rules that will force internet companies to keep details of every email sent in the UK are an attack on privacy and a waste of money, it has been claimed.

From March, all internet service providers (ISP) will have to keep data about emails sent and received in the UK for a year.

Content of individual emails is not being kept by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication are.

The law is being implemented as part an EC directive, and the Government will reportedly have to pay the ISPs more than £25 million to ensure the law is obeyed.

Dr Richard Clayton, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge's computer lab said the costs of the regulation could have been better spent.

He told the BBC: "There's going to be a record of every single email which arrived addressed to you and all the emails you sent out via your ISP. That of course includes all the spam."

The Earl of Northesk, a Conservative peer on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said it meant anyone's movements could be traced 24 hours a day.

He told the broadcaster: "This degree of storage is equivalent to having access to every second, every minute, every hour of your life. People have to worry about the scale, the virtuality of your life being exposed to round about 500 public authorities.

"Under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, privacy is a fundamental right... it is important to protect the principle of privacy because once you've lost it it's very difficult to recover."

The Home Office said the data would be useful for combating crime.
“Content of individual emails is not being kept by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication are.”

Well that's phase one – or the thin end of the wedge if you like.

Mark my words; phase two is sure to follow.

Note the phrase "Looming rules that will FORCE internet companies to keep details of every email sent in the UK ...." This is not a democracy we are living it - it's a dictatorship!!

"The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible
reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."

Adolf Hitler]]>Sarahhttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=446&REPLY_ID=1058410Fri, 9 Jan 2009 12:14:45 +0100Sarahhttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1303&REPLY_ID=1058310Fri, 9 Jan 2009 12:12:43 +0100jonnyb1978http://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1284&REPLY_ID=1058110Fri, 9 Jan 2009 11:06:30 +0100Alan the Geordiehttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=135910Thu, 8 Jan 2009 17:33:53 +0100
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1108774/How-4-000-civil-servants-paid-estimated-133m-year-despite-actually-having-job.html

By Steve Doughty

Last updated at 12:07 AM on 08th January 2009

More than 4,000 civil servants are being kept on the Whitehall payroll despite having no work to do, it was revealed yesterday.

They include nearly 3,000 tax inspectors who continue to be employed under the title 'presurplus staff'.

Other terms used by Government departments to describe the thousands without work include 'people action teams', 'redeployment pools', 'priority movers' and 'career transition centres'.

It means an estimated £133million of taxpayers' money was spent employing 4,634 'pre-surplus staff' assuming the average civil servant salary of £28,622.

The figures, revealed by the Tories from parliamentary questions, are likely to deepen public resentment over the featherbedding of public employees.

It comes at a time when many thousands of private sector workers are facing the threat of redundancy or are struggling to find new jobs. State workers also benefit from guaranteed pensions – a privilege lost by millions in the private sector.

Yesterday, Marks & Spencer employees were the latest to be told that their final salary pension benefits are to be scaled back as the company announced a wave of job cuts.

Francis Maude, Tory Cabinet Office spokesman, said yesterday: 'The New Year brings with it worrying uncertainty for millions in private sector jobs who are really concerned about what Gordon Brown's recession will mean for their families and the ability to pay their mortgage.

'Yet Labour ministers are treating Whitehall like a glorified job creation scheme. Mr Brown talks about creating 100,000 new jobs, but in reality public cash is being wasted on bureaucrats doing nothing. 'It is not fair to waste taxpayers' money in this way. Ministers should either scrap these non-jobs or get these civil servants back into productive work and restore their dignity.'

HM Revenue & Customs – the troubled department which, on top of its tax collection duties distributes benefits in the form of tax credits – employs 2,874 'pre-surplus staff', defined as 'individuals whose post or work is no longer being carried out in a particular location, no longer being done by that office or where such changes are planned in the future'.

At the Ministry of Defence – which has come under fire for endangering troops by cutting spending on vital equipment including body armour – 830 civilian staff are in its 'redeployment pool', while the Foreign Office has 212 staff in its 'corporate pool'.
The Home Office has 62 'staff without posts', and Hazel Blears's Communities and Local Government Department has 56 employees allotted to 'people action teams'.

Jack Straw's Ministry of Justice has 53 'priority movers' – a description given to staff 'without fixed posts' – while in Hilary Benn's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 89 employees have nothing to do.

The figures provide only a snapshot of how many staff do not have work at any one time and do not reveal how long employees were defined as 'pre-surplus'.

Most of the numbers were disclosed during the summer, and include workers who were finishing jobs but had not been allocated new ones, and staff awaiting the start of a new posting.

The figures for the Foreign Office, also include those on maternity leave.

However, the data does provide a clear indication of the level of idleness in Whitehall at any one time. In addition, all departments failed to give details of employees' ranks – whether staff were from IT departments or in politically important Whitehall roles.

And although the staff did go into the office, there were no details provided about the type of duties they performed there.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said last night: 'The number of civil servants has fallen in every quarter over the past four years.
'The figure for staff in non-permanent posts includes mothers returning from maternity leave and people returning from overseas postings waiting to be assigned a new role.

'It is ludicrous and offensive to suggest that these people are sitting around doing nothing.'


Excuse me?

“HM Revenue & Customs – the troubled department which, on top of its tax collection duties distributes benefits in the form of tax credits – employs 2,874 'pre-surplus staff', defined as 'individuals whose post or work is no longer being carried out in a particular location, no longer being done by that office or where such changes are planned in the future'.”

HMRC can afford to pay these 2,874 'pre-surplus staff' but can't afford to write-off overpayments that have arisen because of their stupidity & incompetence??!! – now I find that almost as “ludicrous and offensive" as Gordon (The Lying Scotsman) Brown!!

"The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible
reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed."

Adolf Hitler]]>Ali M-Whttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1340&REPLY_ID=1057210Thu, 8 Jan 2009 07:40:51 +0100Ali M-Whttp://familytaxcredit.forumco.com/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=1347&REPLY_ID=1057110Thu, 8 Jan 2009 07:26:50 +0100