The TaxPayers' Alliance - Burning our Money

Non-job of the week

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.  It sounded good at the time, no?  Read our non-job of the week at Southwark Council and see if the sentiment exists in local government:

“Family Intervention Project Keyworker

£22,638- £27,723

Fixed term contract until March 2011

Our Family Intervention Project has the vital role of intensively supporting families at risk of losing their housing tenancies through antisocial behaviour. We've had some major successes over the past year, and you will help us take things to the next level as you undertake individual and family work, and act to support families thorough profound change. Experienced in working with children and young people within statutory or voluntary settings, you will be capable of assessing complex needs, creating detailed written reports and implementing plans to bring about lasting change. Reference: 418-CS-08.

To find out more visit http://www.jobsatsouthwark.co.uk

Closing date: 28 May 2008.

http://www.jobsatsouthwark.co.uk

Southwark Council”

“Intensively supporting families at risk of losing their housing tenancies through antisocial behaviour”?  Aren’t councils meant to deter antisocial behaviour and use the stick of tenancy withdrawal to try and get some law and order back in our communities?  If a feral family is making their neighbours' lives a misery day and night, you want them out and not pandered to by some sandal-wearing council do-gooder making a cushy living off your money.  It defies belief that Southwark Council - providing social housing - is actually intent on bending over backwards to keep antisocial families in housing that should be there for those who genuinely need the safety net and, I'm sure, would show some gratitude and social responsibility in return.

When are the authorities going to take law and order seriously?  To the media and the public, the politicians roll off hard-hitting rhetoric.  Yet the reality is that councils are advertising for jobs like this when they should be using our money to provide law abiding taxpayers with quality services at the cheapest price.  Until the British people dig around and see where their money is going, councils like Southwark are going to get away with this sort of bleeding-heart PC nonsense with taxpayers money.    

The Great British TaxPayer Rip-off

Rising taxes, soaring charges, service cuts. It’s…

THE GREAT BRITISH TAXPAYER RIP-OFF

Download the full report (PDF)

In a new report, the TaxPayers’ Alliance outlines the way that over the last decade British taxpayers have faced a huge increase in their tax bills, but at the same time, they’ve been made to pay additional fees and charges for what used to be “free” public services. To cap it all, service levels have suffered widespread cuts. Faced by a rising cost of living, these taxes and charges are adding a sizeable burden to ordinary households.

It all adds up to the Great British Taxpayer Rip-Off.

Key Findings:

Rising taxes

• The tax bill has soared, increasing over 50% in ten years even taking inflation into account. Through vast increases in a range of up-front taxes, stealth taxes and cunning measures such as fiscal drag, the average household tax bill has grown to £20,700.
• The total Stamp Duty collected has increased a staggering 314% in the last ten years. Together, the nine fastest growing taxes, which are detailed in the report, make up three quarters of tax revenue.
• Fiscal drag, by which the Government catches millions of people in higher tax bands by raising thresholds slower than inflation, has raised £80 billion in the last ten years, including £14 billion in the last year alone.

Higher Charges

• The total cost of NHS, local authority and quango charges is now over £17 billion per annum, nearly £700 per household.
• Full details of the range of charges are given in the report, but some examples include: school dinners charges have risen 50% in ten years to £1 billion per annum; parking charges and fines have risen to over £1 billion; Hospital car parks raise over £100m in England alone.

The full report provides the most comprehensive analysis of the rise in taxes, stealth taxes and charges that has ever been compiled, illustrating the burden borne by ordinary families across the country. A PDF of the report is attached to this email.

Mike Denham, the former Treasury Economist who authored the report, said:

“The Government has used every trick in the book to drive up the tax burden, and ordinary families are paying a heavy price. People are increasingly beset by record levels of taxation and growing service charges, but there has been no improvement in services in return. We find ourselves paying more and more for less and less. With rocky economic times ahead, this rate of taxation simply cannot be sustained.”

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

“The British public are being ripped off in the most shameful way. The cloak and dagger methods the Government is using the squeeze money out of hard working people are deplorable. We are sick and tired of being exploited and let down. With fewer police stations, limited GPs’ hours, libraries closing, rarer bin collections and a host of other cuts we are getting less for our money than ever before. People are facing higher fuel bills, more expensive food and much bigger mortgage bills – and on top of all that they are being stealth  taxed and charged more than ever before. This con has got to stop.”

Non-job of the week

One of the criteria for a job to qualify as the non-job of the week is whether we could live without it.  This week, see for yourself from the Guardian Society pages:

“Community Capacity Building Officer

£25,320 - £31,606 pa (pay award pending)

Ref: CS85

Fixed term post for 3 years

Take on this key role in the Community and Voluntary Relations Unit, and you will ensure the continued growth and development of the voluntary and community sector in Solihull. Your capacity building remit will involve working in partnership with local voluntary and community organisations, other service areas within the Council, as well as a range of partners from Solihull's Local Strategic Partnership.

Expert at translating strategy into practice, building and developing strong relationships, and carrying out meaningful community engagement, you will be involved in the design, development and delivery of Local Area Agreement initiatives and targets around volunteering, community cohesion and a thriving third sector.

A graduate-calibre professional, you will have a proven track record of working with the voluntary and community sector to support the growth, development and sustainability of local community groups and organisations. Working knowledge of local strategic partnerships, thematic subgroups, community strategies and local area agreements will also be essential. For an informal discussion, please contact Faisal Hussain, Head of Community & Voluntary Relations on 0121 704 8541.

Apply on-line at http://www.solihull.gov.uk

Alternatively for a recruitment pack and application form: Tel: 0121 704 6800 (24 hour answerphone)

Email: connectcc@solihull.gov.uk

We are unable to accept CVs. Please quote reference number CS85 in any communication.

Closing date: 23rd May 2008.

Interview date: 3rd June 2008.

All applications will be considered on their merits and people with disabilities meeting the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.”

Whilst the aims of the post are honourable, the voluntary sector has survived long enough without government interference.  People turn to and get involved in the voluntary sector partly because it isn’t government related, and usually does a better job too.  Similarly with community groups, people take their time out for a good cause they care passionately about.  The strength of a voluntary group is the cause, not government employing an officer to get people to volunteer – that defeats the point of voluntary activity.

During these tough economic times, families have to tighten their belts.  Councils should be expected to do the same instead of squandering taxpayers’ money on positions the community can easily live without.

The Staff Room Dumbs Down

How staffrooms used to be

Hard on the heels of last week's teachers' strike, we've had news of school pupils being paid to take lessons in place of qualified teachers:

"A school is paying sixth-formers as young as 16 to teach lessons instead of hiring qualified supply staff. It has put a team of 24 A-level students on standby to fill in when regular teachers are away, paying them £5 for each 50-minute lesson they take. The headmistress says they do a better job than qualified adult teachers hired from supply agencies."

Meanwhile, Schools Minister Jim Knight has released a Good News Bulletin. He says:

“Teaching is now one of the most sought after professions thanks to increases in the average teacher’s salary by 19% in real terms to an average of over £34,000; cuts bureaucracy and tougher disciplinary powers for staff. The result is almost 41,000 more teachers in our schools in the last decade and buoyant recruitment.”

Huh?

“There are now more teachers, teaching assistants and support staff and more staff per pupil than ever before. We’ve freed up teachers from administration tasks to do what they do best - teaching and giving pupils more individual attention. And we have invested massively in support staff on the ground to give them the back up they need."

Since every teacher we know is severely hacked off, and the pupils evidently do a better job than qualified teachers, we decided to take a closer look. Just what has been happening in the staff room? What do Knight's claims actually mean?

First, let's note that last year the government spent £41.5bn on schools in England. That's up from around £23bn in 1997-98, an increase of about 80%. Which is a lot of money.

So have teacher numbers increased by 41,000, as Kight claims?

Well, waddaya know, yes they have. According to the official stats, the number of full-time equivalent (fte) teachers increased from 400,000 in 1997 to 441,000 this year. So he's spot on.

Except, when you study the detail, a very large number of these extar teachers turn out to be unqualified and/or part-timers.

First, strip out the statistically shadowy 6,000 who work for the new Academies and City Technology Colleges- we know virtually nothing of their provenance. That leaves 435,000 working in the traditional local authority maintained school sector, up by 36,000 since 1997.

Of that 36,000, no fewer than 14,000 lack what's known as Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). In other words, they are teaching without the proper qualifications to do so. Back in 1997, the number of such teachers was a mere 3,000, so under Labour there has been more than a fourfold increase.

And of the 22,000 additional qualified teachers, 20,000 are part-timers: there are now over 100,000 part-time teachers altogether, and on average they work about half-time, thereby comprising 50,000 full-time equivalents. While they may be perfectly good teachers, we can't help thinking there are some obvious disadvantages in terms of teaching continuity.

Which means that the increase in traditional qualified full-time teachers - the sort of people we'd like teaching your children - actually comes down to a mere 1800. Or less than one-tenth of an extra teacher per school.

So much for Knight's trumpeted 41,000 extra teachers. But what about all those support staff he goes on about? They must help, right?

Well, since 1997, the number of support staff in state schools has exploded.

The number of classroom assistants has virtually trebled, going from 61,000 to 176,000. A trebling. They've gone from from one for every six full-time qualified teacher, to one for every two. It's a massive change in the way our schools are organised, and it's passed by virtually unremarked outside of education circles.

The number of other support staff has also rocketed, doubling from 73,000 in 1997, to 147,000 now.

The bottom line? Just as they've dumbed down our exam system, it seems Labour has also seriously dumbed down our school staff rooms. In fact, the proportion of school staff who are full-time qualified teachers has plummeted from 69% in 1997 to a mere 49% now: a 20% drop which means that fewer than half the people now employed in schools to educate our kids are full-time qualified teachers:

No wonder Chalfonts Community College has had to revert to the original Victorian method of pupil teachers.

Just one question: given they only cost five quid a lesson, when can we taxpayers have a refund on that 80% increase in schools spending?