Government Blunders £1.9 billion in 2017

Surprised? Of course not. When there is little or no accountability and net national debt is around £2 trillion this kind of news, as reported in the Mail on Sunday [21 October 2018] is no longer on the front page.

Biggest culprits? Department of Work and Pensions which wrote off a mere £330 million overpaid to benefit claimants who couldn't afford the repayments.

According to the Mail, Ministers and officials blew around £4,000 a minute on botched contracts, failed projects and compensation payouts.

This is up 12% on 2016!

Still, good news for the Government; its the annual reaping of our money next week - the Budget - so I'm sure all "losses" will be fully recovered, with interest.

More surprising news emerges in the form of disagreements between customers and their banks. The Chancellor is under pressure to address this issue and the Mail's Justice For Our Firms campaign calling for a new tribunal regime to help businesses hold their lenders to account. This is crucial as a planned Financial Ombudsman Service extension will only cater for firms with turnover of less than £6.5 million - this would leave 42,000 firms having to pay for expensive legal justice.

Claims will be limited to £350,000 - MP Kevin Hollinrake who has been leading the charge for a new system says that 90% of all claims are for more than this sum.

So relieved we're all in this together.