Them and us fishes, image by Suzanne Beishon

Them and us fishes, image by Suzanne Beishon   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Bosses’ pay boost

Chief executives of elite ‘FTSE 100′ corporations have watched their pay rise by a third between 2010 and 2015. Meanwhile, workers’ real wages have fallen by a tenth since 2007 (see story below left).

The same bosses took home 140 times as much as the average employee’s pay, according to the High Pay Centre.

The average pay for chief execs was £5.5 million. That’s enough to pay for 239 nurses. Each.

How do you think the Socialist would like to see that money spent? On 100 fat cats, or 23,900 nurses?

Hint: nurses and teachers have rarely been known to crash the economy. And in February, a BBC Freedom of Information request found 23,443 unfilled nursing vacancies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.


Taxes v benefits

Super-rich property holders could cheat the Treasury out of £18 billion this financial year. Meanwhile, up to £13 billion of benefits went unclaimed last year.

A new National Audit Office report on capital gains tax says that due to the “complexity of the rules and lack of reporting requirements, there is scope for wide-scale misuse to go undetected.” Perhaps reversing the cuts to tax inspectors might help?

And the Department for Work and Pensions reports that many entitled to state support did not manage to claim it. It estimated only half those eligible for jobseeker’s allowance actually got hold of it. Only six in ten received pension credit, and eight in ten housing benefit or IS/ESA disability benefits.