The Tax Payers Alliance (TPA) has published its latest addition of its Bumper Book of Government Waste, which claims to reveal that “the Government wasted £120.4 billion in 2012-13, the equivalent of £4,560 per every household in the UK”. The research is published to mark the launch of the TPA’s “War on Waste” campaign as they celebrate their tenth anniversary.
Olly from PSI: However, the extravagant £120 billion figure is mostly made up of policies that PSI simply don’t like, such as…
Around £15bn of the overall figure comes from benefits that TPA has decided people don’t need, including increasing housing benefit. A further £2bn is from what the TPA has decided is overspent in the overseas aid budget, because they don’t agree with the rise in the aid budget. TPA say that £1.1bn is wasted on subsidies for train companies, although they have in the past complained about higher train fares that those subsidies are intended to stop.
Meanwhile, nearly £25bn of the total is made up of public sector pay peculiarities that TPA dislike: £22.5bn is calculated of the “waste” is based on the differentiation between the average public sector salary and pension compared to the private sector; while £1.4bn comes from TPA’s complaint that GPs in the UK are paid more than in France when the equivalent role of the general practitioner does not exist in the same way in France as it does in the UK. Another 20.6bn of the total is fraud, which everyone wants to prevent but the difficulty is how. £70 was spent by the Forestry Commission on a bunny outfit, whether that is wasteful I will let you decide…
In conclusion, Government waste is a problem but not to the extent TPA say it is.
