Take the wealth off the super-rich instead!
Alex Sampson, Plymouth Socialist Party
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) confirmed this week that, after thousands of families were unjustly stripped of their child benefit, its controversial benefit fraud detection system has been fixed.
The system, which was supposed to stop child benefit to people who left the country and did not return within eight weeks, was found to be deeply flawed. In a move reminiscent of the Post Office Horizon scandal, bosses at HMRC thought that the risk of errors was “remote” and pushed on with its implementation.
In fact, of the nearly 24,000 families penalised in this way by HMRC, 71% have been shown to be errors. So far, only 5% of cases identified have actually been identified as fraudulent claims. That is nearly 15,000 families who had their child benefit stopped, causing undue stress and financial pressure, especially for families in Northern Ireland as the system failed to take into account the people travelling via the Republic.
The government says that this system is essential to tackle fraud and will recoup around £350 million over five years. At the same time, it is doing nothing to stop the wealthiest members of society and multinational corporations using appalling tax loopholes to underpay billions in tax. Benefit fraud is a drop in the ocean in comparison, but once again governments look for the easiest targets – working-class families.
The billions that could be recouped from tax evasion by the super-rich would pump much needed extra finance into the public purse, which could be used to properly fund our NHS, social care, schools and many other services that benefit us all, but Sir Keir Starmer lets his fat-cat business allies hoard millions and millions.
Such people should not be able to influence public policy for their own interests, while increasing the suffering of the working class in an attempt to claw back small amounts of money under the guise of efficiency. We must break from the rule of the rich and work to build a socialist society which works to benefit us all, not the ultra-rich bosses.
