Money Making Schemes

tier 1 general scheme for immigration; recruitment/work permit agencies?

I believe that under the new Tier 1 general which replaces the old HSMP scheme, the initial application now has to be made outside of the UK (i.e. to the British Embassy in whichever country). I believe that in the past recruitment and work permit agencies used to make money on the fact that they would charge a fee for foreigners to send over their CVs and have the forms filled in for them and sent to the relevant department in Britain. However now that the biometrics requirements are in place (necessitating presence of the applicant at the embassy) and hard copies of documents such as passports etc must be included in the application to the embassy would it not be simpler/necessary for the foreigener themselves go to the embassy with the filled out form (and give the biometrics and passport) rather than sending all this stuff over to england to have it sent back to the british embassywhich is in their own country anyway and have to pay for it! how did/do these agencies make money?Thxs

has anyone read this news item.?

Immigrants are being offered cash cards by a Labour donor hoping to profit from a rush by workers to transfer billions of pounds out of the UK.

Iranian-born Ali Sarikhani, a friend of Tessa Jowell’s husband David Mills, has set up the Tuxedo Blue Diamond card for people without bank accounts who have money to send abroad to friends or family.

Cash ‘loaded’ on to the cards will be accessible to duplicate cardholders in 900 locations across 100 countries worldwide.

But the launch of the scheme raises fresh doubts over the Government’s claims that immigration boosts the country’s gross domestic product by £4billion a year.

An annual £5.6billion worth of funds is transferred by immigrants out of the country, according to figures provided by the Department For International Development.

Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch UK, said: “The main beneficiaries are the immigrants, who are able to send home about £10million a day, not the host nation. It is a loss when that money leaves and we have to buy foreign capital to make it up. Freedom of movement of capital is right and proper but it is a loss that is often overlooked.”

The new cards will be sold on buses and even ferries as migrants enter the country looking for work. Tuxedo is investing £5.1million in the scheme, advertising across a range of ethnic TV channels and in publications across Asia and Eastern Europe as it targets the lucrative immigrant market.

Migrants will be able to load their cards with up to £2,500 and then pay bills with the card, withdraw cash, send up to £200 a day abroad or order duplicate cards to be used for withdrawals by friends and family from cash machines abroad.

To set up a Tuxedo card, a UK-based customer need only provide a photocopy of a passport of any nationality. No bank account or credit check is required.

Mr Sarikhani and his fellow directors hope to make money by selling the cash cards for £9.95 and charging up to £1.50 in the UK for cash machine withdrawals and £2.25 abroad. Purchases with the card have a 2.95 per cent fee.

The 61-year-old businessman is a non-executive chairman of Tuxedo Money Solutions and donated £10,000 to Labour in 2001. A trained chartered accountant, he made his fortune in tax consultancy.

He and Tuxedo’s chief executive officer, Andre Bischoff, were also involved in a successful buyout of Alpha Telecom, which has a lucrative share in the pre-paid telephone market favoured by immigrant workers in the UK.

Mr Sarikhani became a British citizen at the age of 23 and lives in a mansion close to Hampstead Heath in North London.

He became friends with Mr Mills when his company Edasco acquired CMM Corporate Services which was then run by the Culture Secretary’s husband.

What do you all make of this then, 1 year on and things have got worse.?

Britons have worst state pension in EUBy SEAN POULTER
Last updated at 22:08 12 November 2007 ( Daily Mail )

Millions of Britons are being condemned to poverty in old age by the worst state pension in the EU, a study shows.

The basic state pension of £90 a week is equivalent to just 16 per cent of the average wage, it found.

This figure rises to 30 per cent once pension payments related to earnings are taken into account.

But this is still only half the EU average of 60 per cent, the financial firm Aon Consulting said. Its study concluded: “The inadequacy of the state system is beyond question.”

Charities including Help the Aged warn the problem has been made worse because the state pension has failed to keep pace with increases in the cost of essentials such as heating, water, and council tax.

A recent study found a quarter of pensioners are having to cut back on basics to survive. Until recently many British workers could rely on private pensions such as final salary schemes.

However, many of the most generous schemes have been replaced by deals requiring higher monthly payments in return for a smaller pension.

In addition, the study said a “spate” of banking scandals and crises had damaged confidence in the private pension system.

As a result, Britons are not investing in private pensions on the scale needed to make up for the state system’s failings.

The average age of retirement in Britain – 62.6 – is also above the EU average of 61. Some 57 per cent of Britons aged between 55 and 64 are in paid employment.

Aon found the value of Britain’s state pension for a single person is 30.8 per cent of the average wage. This figure is 32.5 per cent in Ireland, 39.9 per cent in Germany and 51.2 per cent in France.
The most generous state pension is offered by Greece, where the figure is 95.7 per cent.

Aon said Britain’s ageing population is reliant on young immigrants to boost the number of workers, generating taxes to fund pensions.

But it stressed this was not a longterm solution to the pensions crisis.
The firm’s chief actuary, Donald Duval, said: “Migrant workers have helped boost the pension pot in the UK to mitigate against its demomeal-graphic problems but this is not a sustainable measure.

It is a smokescreen hiding deeper issues facing the pension system.

“More needs to be done to restore confidence in private schemes so as to drive an increased level of contributions. People cannot afford to rely on the state pension, which remains the lowest in Europe.

“The 2005 Turner Report on the future of pensions concluded that the ageing population left the UK with four choices: lower pensions, higher retirement ages, higher member contributions or higher taxes.

“Assuming that the first is unacceptable, some combination of the latter three needs to be encouraged.”

A spokesman for Help the Aged said: “Pensioners are resorting to strategies such as buying cut-price food that is nearly out of date.

“Increasingly the poorest pensioners are turning to friends and family to help them out.

“Debt agencies are also reporting an increase in the number of older people who have borrowed money they can’t repay.

“Simple things like going out for a meal or inviting people to your home become impossible. Holidays are completely out of the question, while people have to cut back on hobbies and social events.”

The Government plans to restore a link between rises in earnings and rises in the basic pension by 2012.

However, this will be part of a package that will also raise the retirement age from 65 in 2024 to 68 by 2050.
Read more…

One million pensioners eating less to pay heating bills

The Government should ignore some of the money pensioners receive from private schemes to encourage more Britons to save towards their retirement, a report suggests.

The Pensions Policy Institute said many are afraid to invest in private schemes because they would lose means-tested state benefits.

The research charity suggested the Government should therefore disregard the first £12 a week someone receives from a private pension when calculating their state benefits.

This would allow someone to have a pension fund worth £6,000 before it affected their means-tested benefits.

Is there ENOUGH pork in Obama’s SCHEME to KEEP PIGS in business for decades?

The main concern about the $787 billion package is that around $400 billion of it (estimates vary) is being used to buy off various Democratic constituencies, granting funding to local projects dear to the hearts of the congressmen whose votes were required to get the package through, and bailing out discredited banks and businesses that many feel deserved to go under.

Only yesterday Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, asked for a change in funding rules to save the San Francisco Chronicle, an ailing newspaper in her own home town that has, by coincidence, loyally supported her. It is not impossible that her wish will be granted. This is what the Americans call pork-barrel politics, and there is enough pork in this scheme to keep pigs in business for decades.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/5007962/President-Barack-Obama-Perhaps-he-cant-fix-it.-.-..html

Another criticism of the package is that only 23 per cent of the money is expected to come on-stream this year, making a mockery of claims that the money was needed urgently to prevent meltdown.

The impression of wealth built on a mountain of debt?

The impression of wealth built on a mountain of debt.

The ‘Prudent’ Gordon Brown gave us this over 10 years as Chancellor, robbed our pension funds and sold off the UK Gold Reserve for 1/5th of its current value and oversaw the monumental expansion of the welfare state. And what did they do, sack him for gross incompetence? No they made him Prime Minister.

And what are they going do do with all the bank executives, sack them ? No Gordon has given them £9,000 per head of the population per in the UK, £500 billion of our money and told them to ‘carry on’.

Then there is the oil price.

1 barrel {of crude oil} = 42 US gallons = 160 litres

1 barrel of oil now = $80 and £1 = $1.80

but 3 months ago, at its peak, a barrel of oil cost $160 and when we were paying £1.30 for diesel , £1.19 for petrol per litre

but now we are paying £1.07 for petrol and £1.18 for diesel per litre.

So the cost per litre {before refining, fuel duty, vat, distribution costs and profits}

is today

80/(160×1.8) = 28p per litre

that’s 1/2 what it was 3 months ago , but we are only paying 10% less at the pumps.

Just like mortgage rates, when the bank of England rate goes up, Banks pass on the costs the same day, but when it goes down, the banks hang on as long as possible {and still they lost all our money, £9,000 per head of population in the UK and rising , where as in the USA it’s only £2000 per tax payer}.

Just like the banks, all the oil money is going somewhere and its not to hard working folk and average earnings !!

Which brings us back to the start. Is this all a conspiracy?

Common folk have there pensions in shares.

The government brings about the collapse in shares, passes the blame and watches everyone’s pensions fall by 90%.

The government buys shares from the pension schemes at 10% of their value. Shares then go back up to their true value. The city makes hundreds of £ billions and pays this to itself in bonuses. The Government sell the shares back to the pension companies at the full price and uses the 1000% profits {from the 90% loss in our pensions, money earned from decades of employment per person} to fund the £100 Billion cost per year of the welfare state for the 4 million of the 5 million people who live on benefits but who can work, but who are better off living off the state?

Then Gordon tells all people in work, the ‘working class’ that they will have to work until they are 70 to get their, much reduced pensions yet Gordon’s newly created ‘welfare class’ who have lived off benefits and never paid into owt will get a full state pension.

And just look at Peter Mandleson. In less than 4 years the tax payer has funded his pension scheme to the tune of £1,0000,000 and this in addition to his v v v generous MP’s pension too.

Nice one Gordon.