What the feck are they spending all that money on? Hell, if it costs that much, why not just give every one of the 60 million population a million pound each and have done with it?!

Great idea, they could give every household a million quid per year for a pretty much undetectable amount from the amount they blow on god knows what.

Though if everyones rich they stop going to work, and bye bye modern civlisation soon after.

Though if everyones rich they stop going to work, and bye bye modern civlisation soon after.

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The inflation rate just goes through the roof so that a loaf of bread costs £200,000 or something equally ridiculous, for a little while anyway. It's not that everyone becomes rich, more that money becomes worthless - unfortunately. :(

18th Consecutive year!! - so it doesn't seem to matter whether the accounts are signed off or not then? It seems that the ICO is not the only toothless watchdog around these days!

"The report identifies limited IT integration as one reason for the high level of error, as well as complex benefits rules, poor business process design and human mistakes." -

Hmm..we all know about the inability of big government to implement IT so that part comes as no surprise, but complex benefits rules?.. I wonder who put them in place?...oh yes, the man now sitting in No.10.

Will someone at the NAO please a bill to G.Brown for £500 million please?

there's all that fraud. If they've got evidence, why don't they prosecute?

Off topic, you may wish to look at this: http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/nfi/downloads/NFI_2004-05Summary.pdf only an out of date summary, but the best I can find.

...that they can happily write off £2.5B due to fraud and crap procedures, but waste god knows how much more harrassing Mr and Mrs Greenwell through the courts to get at, what, a few thousand in extra tax. I would suggest that here is another intelligent couple who well might be looking at taking their skills to a more accomodating country, and so the brain drain that is happening in this shithole continues.

Do these people not entertain forward thinking?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/26/arctic_systems_tax_ruling/