asking the regulatory bodies who police professional standards to take on a greater lead and responsibility in setting and enforcing clear professional standards around the facilitation and promotion of avoidance the introduction of a new strict liability offence for those who have not paid the tax due on offshore income new civil penalties for enablers of tax evasion – consultation to follow on the detail of this to create a new offence of corporate failure to prevent tax evasion or the facilitation of tax evasion, following consultation further toughening of the range of penalties available to HMRC, following consultation investing more resource in the rewards that HMRC can and does pay, for significant information on offshore tax evasion.
See GOV.UK for full details.
Welfare Reforms
Universal Credit update
6 May 2014
There remains uncertainty about the Universal Credit IT system, according to a report by the Work and Pensions Committee, including how it will work, how much it will cost, and who will develop it. National roll-out of UC (the driver behind real time information) was due to begin in October 2013. But problems with IT systems meant that major changes to the implementation timetable were made in July and then again in December 2013. Currently, UC claims are still limited to 10 Pathfinder Jobcentres. New claims are not expected to be extended to the whole of Great Britain until 2016; and the bulk of existing claimants will not move over to UC until 2016-17. "Only 4,280 people were claiming Universal Credit by December 2013 and the majority of these claims were of the simplest nature. By comparison, in the same month, 1.22 million people were claiming Jobseekers Allowance. This demonstrates the scale of the challenge still facing the government in trying to implement UC by 2017. Whilst it is right to ensure that the system works properly before extending it, there is a difference between cautious progress and a snail’s pace. Given the excruciatingly slow pace of roll-out to date, it is hard to see how the most recent implementation timetable can be met." The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is trying to resolve the IT problems by developing a new “end-state solution” for UC IT which will eventually replace the IT system currently in use in the UC Pathfinders. This is costing £25-32 million to develop up to November 2014, with no indication of how much more it will cost in the long-term. And it will only be clear that it works once it has been tested at scale. However, it is still some way from being tested on the first 100 claimants. The government should provide more detail on what the end-state solution means in practical terms, including how much it will cost, when it will be ready to test on the first claimants, how it will be extended, and when it is expected to be fully implemented. Commenting, Dame Anne Begg MP, Committee Chair, said:
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 514 of 521
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