It's Only Money

Although the sneering schoolboy has been replaced by the empty suit, there seems an encouraging continuity at the Treasury when it comes to questions of mere competence. Numerous MPs and their constituents claim that Concentrix, the Government's private-sector boot-boys at HMRC, have been wrongly depriving people of tax credits, while Concentrix are claiming a quiet pride in saving the taxpayer money and a corporate conscience of Blairite lily-albinitude. The Treasury's response has been to shrug the whole thing off with what it presumably hopes is a reasonable facsimile of Osbornomic insouciance. The firm's contract will not be renewed, but it will be allowed to continue its abuses for the remaining eight months of its present employment; and there will be no enquiry, whether because the Treasury is on principle uninterested in how taxpayers' money is spent, or because there are too many post-parliamentary kickbacks at stake. Meanwhile, a flunkey was extruded which promised to focus on resolving outstanding cases, "particularly the most vulnerable" who can be resolved, more often than not, with a snap of ministerial fingers and another nice, thick slice off their incomes.