Archive for September, 2008
Theft of ‘mutuality’ lies at the heart of the global financial crisis: Co-operative News
The Paul Gosling column
- this column was written on 22nd September for publication in the first October issue of Co-operative News
Washington Mutual remained in business as this sentence was written. By the time it is read there is a very strong chance that it will no longer be trading in its own right – perhaps [...]
Questions Of Cash: ‘I went hungry when A&L bungled my wage cheque’: The Independent
Questions Of Cash: ‘I went hungry when A&L bungled my wage cheque’
Saturday, 27 September 2008
Q I paid a wage cheque for £600 into my Alliance & Leicester bank account in early April. A mistake in the branch caused this amount to be shown on my account as a debit instead of a credit. This took [...]
Questions of Cash: ‘Abbey keeps charging me for its mistakes’: The Independent
Questions Of Cash: ‘Abbey keeps charging me for their mistakes’
By Paul Gosling
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Q. My salary is paid into my bank account on the 15th of each month. My mortgage lender, Abbey, has changed the collection date on my mortgage to the 14th of the month. Abbey says it changed the collection date when [...]
Reasons to be optimistic - a profile of Nigel Dodds: Public Finance
The sun was, for once, shining on Stormont Parliament at the end of a very wet Northern Irish summer. The omens seemed good for the crisis meeting between First Minister Peter Robinson, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and their leading colleagues in the Democratic Unionist and Sinn Fein parties, as they attempted to resolve an [...]
Financial management case studies: Audit Commission
I have written a series of financial management case studies, looking at notable practice in public bodies - examining in detail the refom of financial management practices. These case studies were produced for the Audit Commission to enable public bodies to learn from the experience of others. They are published at http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/financialmanagement/.
Microfinance faces meltdown: Co-operative News
The Paul Gosling Column
Laily Begum has become famous in Bangladesh. She is the public face of those who borrowed from Grameen Bank, the microfinance institution that creates opportunities for Bangladesh’s rural poor. Begum’s face has been on thousands of posters and leaflets, promoting the benefits of microcredit.
Begum’s loan from Grameen was for a mere 500 [...]
‘Privatisation exposes Government to heavy bail-out risks’: Report for Unison
UNISON SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON MURKY WORLD OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES INDUSTRY
The seismic shift towards private companies providing public services is exposing the Government and taxpayers to enormous financial risks, warns UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union today (18 September). The union is calling on the Government to ditch its fair-weather friends in big business [...]
News despatch: Accounting & Business
Liechtenstein concedes in tax battle
Liechtenstein has yielded to international pressure, agreeing to share financial information on non-residents who bank in the principality. Prince Alois - the permanent representative of his father, the head of state - said Liechtenstein’s new approach reflected an international mood towards mutual assistance on tax.
“In the future, we should offer [...]
The end is nigh - for final salary schemes: Local Government Chronicle
Local government’s final salary pension scheme will cease to exist within four years. That is the dramatic prediction of authorities’ own pension fund managers and other senior council finance officials.
A survey of participants at recent seminars organised by fund advisers Mercer found that 75% believe that the current final salary scheme will not exist by [...]
Co-payments - the inevitable reality for public services?: Health Service Review
A principle of the NHS is that all patients are treated equally. But should that principle extend to effectively banning patients from buying treatments that may prolong their life, just because other patients cannot afford to purchase the same drugs?
The tragic death of Linda O’Boyle in June shone a light on an area of NHS [...]
