Quote Originally Posted by rory_20_uk View Post
I'm not defending either.

The fact there is an outcry in that housing benefits are topped at £400 a WEEK (the rent for my family home is £950 a MONTH) shows something is seriously wrong, as does c. £21 BILLION gets spent per year on this. Every year. And to date rising. So, back to the £400pw (roughly £20k a year)- which is close to the average wage by itself when one includes taxes... How are these with the least again? There are many workers with a hell of a lot less.

By all means, fight fire with fire and purchase lists of hidden overseas tax accounts and come down like a ton of bricks on the offenders.
Sort out the tax laws that allow fast practices such as occurred at Vodafone.
I'd say legalise drugs / prostitution as well: get money into the state wherever possible from evaders / avoiders and illegal practices!

Concerning the media attention, humans place far more value on potential loss than potential gain. So, they'll be more pissed on the viewed loss of taxes paid than the gains that might have been from taxes not paid. Interest / outrage sells papers.

The problem is that the extreme examples of benefit payment to the top 5% are used as a justification to attack the other 95% who just about scrape by.

It's one of the paradoxes of housing benefit that if you are made unemployed, the state will not pay your mortgage, but if you rent, will happily pay the mortgage of your landlord.