Friday, 10 September 2010

TPA Bulletin - 10th September 2010
£85m Trade Union bill
As public sector trade unions are preparing to fight spending cuts and threatening strikes, our latest research released last Sunday revealed that they are doing so with the help of a hefty chunk of taxpayers' cash. Here at the TPA we have, for the first time, calculated the value of the direct grants and paid time off that unions are receiving and found the bill is in excess of £85m.

This new report was compiled by sending Freedom of Information requests to more than 1,200 public sector organisations, including fire authorities, quangos, councils, NHS Trusts, ambulance and fire services. If you'd like to see how much has been spent on unions in your local area, do take a look at the figures we've published in the interest of transparency.
Our key findings:
- Trade unions received £85.8 million from public sector organisations in 2009-10
- This sum is made up of £18.3 million in direct payments from public sector organisations and an estimated £67.5 million in paid staff time.
- The total is up 14 per cent from 2008-09, when trade unions received £76.1 million from public sector organisations.
- 2,493 full time equivalent public sector employees worked for trade unions at the taxpayers' expense in 2009-10.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
"Trade unions are lining up to fight vital cuts in public spending and threatening strikes that could cause massive disruption for ordinary families. By financing their other work, like representing and recruiting members, taxpayers' money frees up union funds for political contributions and expensive campaigns. If big, rich, public sector unions are going to take an active political role, there is no way they should be getting taxpayers' money."

PAYE fiasco
As many of you will know, last weekend we heard the news that almost six million people have been paying the wrong amount of income tax via the Pay As You Earn system. Though the first batch of 45,000 letters informing those affected have been sent out this week, for many it might take months to find out if they owe or are owed cash. This almighty blunder is likely to cost a fortune to rectify, and in the mean time ordinary working people will be wondering whether or not they'll be expected to pay back money to the Government.
This situation echoes the disaster in 2007 when HMRC lost 25million child benefits records. This time the department are blaming the introduction of a new computer system which - it seems fair to say - has been badly handled. With such a long and confusing tax code that few people (other than qualified accountants!) are able to get their heads around, UK taxpayers are now at the mercy of those who created this mess.

Our Campaign Manager, Emma Boon, has appeared extensively on the TV and radio in the days since the news broke, with over a thousand mentions in the media on this issue. Each time she has condemned HMRC for causing such costly chaos and the TPA are now calling on the department's Chief Executive to resign.

If you've received a letter from HMRC and would be happy to speak to a journalist about your story then please do get in touch with us!
EU Funding of Party Political Research
The EU has been criticised in the past for funding trans-national political groups with European taxpayers’ money. Clearly there are a number of problems with this policy, not least that the public funding of political parties does not fit with the established practice in Britain of using voluntary donations. What's more it is also easier for parties in favour of European integration to get the money than it is for those opposed to it, as the former tend to operate trans-nationally while the latter are more loosely aligned by definition, whilst the very prospect of receiving such money (and the threat of losing it!) may influence policy makers to favour European integration. Extremist parties will also qualify for state support once they cross the qualifying threshold.

Our new evidence, compiled by EU expert Dr. Lee Rotherham, shows that in addition to EU funding for parties, significant amounts also go to the research institutes who support the main parties.

The key findings of this research are:
- The latest call for proposals (2009/C 125/09) offers funding this year in support of “political foundations at European level”.
- There is a total of €7,140,000 (£6.4 million) allocated to support “political foundations at European level” in the next financial year (2010).
- Over two years, the policy and research teams of openly pro-EU political groups have received £7,544,000, while openly EU-critical political groups have received £665,000.
If you'd like to take a look at the full findings of Dr. Rotherham's research, you can do so by clicking here.
European Resource Bank and Taxpayer conference
We're delighted to report that the conference mentioned in last week's bulletin has been a great success, with some really useful sessions and contributions from taxpayer associations, free market think tanks and 'Tea Party' groups from across the world, who were addressed by a host of eminent speakers. Proceedings culminate tonight with our Gala Dinner, and we'd like to thank everyone who came along. Those of you who couldn't make it will still be able to watch some of the key speeches online soon!














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