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POLICE CASHING ON CRASHES !
POLICE are bringing in millions of pounds by passing on crash details to lawyers and insurance companies, figures show. Forces are accepting ‘administration fees’ for handing over copies of reports on road traffic accidents. The Metropolitan Police has received more than £5 million in this way since 2009, while the Hampshire force pulled in more than £480,000 since 2010. Fife Constabulary made almost £2000,000. The country’s 48 other police forces did not reveal how much they made following a request under the Freedom of Information Act by car insurance company LV=. The Met said the money it made is simply an ‘administration cost’for providing copies of its reports.‘Any suggestions that the MPS has sold these details are untrue’ a spokesman said. The Met’s own figures show it made an average of £371 for each of the 13000 requests it received over the last three years. ‘That is a lot of money for administration’ said a spokesman for LV=.
The news came as separate research by the company claimed two thirds of accident victims are contacted by claims companies or lawyers – sometimes within hours of accidents. Some opportunistic claims management companies go to the scene of the accident, while others go to the hospital where victims are being treated. Managing director John O’Roarke criticised the ‘aggressive’ hounding of crash victims. ‘The heavy-handed tactics of the “claims farming” industry has resulted in record levels of compensation claims for whiplash and
other personal injuries – despite falling accident rates,’ he added. Last year David Cameron promised to clamp down on a compensation culture which had made Britain the ‘whiplash capital of Europe’. From April it will be illegal to receive payment for referral fees in personal injury cases and there will also be a cap on lawyers’ fees on successful claims. But the pending legislation has prompted a whiplash ‘gold rush’ with claims companies hounding people regardless of whether they have been injured or not, says LV=.
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Poorest families face new council tax blow
Poor families may have to pay hundreds of pounds more in council tax from April but many have no idea about what is about to hit them. Up to 3million low-income households will be worse off as council tax benefit is scrapped, according to the Resolution Foundation think-tank. Some will have to pay nearly £600 a year more, with single parents on minimum wage likely to be the hardest hit. The foundation’s Gavin Kelly said: ‘Millions of England’s poorest households – both in and out of work – are already very close to the edge given falling wages, tax credits and benefits. ‘Very few of those currently exempt from paying the full rate of council tax are expecting a large new bill to drop on to their doormat this spring. When it does, they are going to find it hard to cope.’ As well as scrapping council tax benefit, the government has handed responsibility for the discounts available to the less welloff to local councils. But it has also told them to find savings of ten per cent and banned them from penalising the elderly. Three out of four councils have been forced to cut the discounts, says the Resolution Foundation. It means families with no one in work and hitherto exempt from the tax will have to pay some of the bill for the first time – typically between £96 and £255 a year. A single parent, working part-time on minimum wage and currently paying £173 a year for a modest home, will become liable for up to an extra £577 a year. If they live in a bigger home, their bill will rise by more than £600. Councils which choose not to trim back the discounts have been ordered to find the ten per cent savings from other services. Critics point out the changes come in at the same time that millionaires get a ‘huge tax cut’. Local government minister Brandon Lewis said the reforms would cut fraud and get people into work. He added: ‘We are ending the something-for-nothing culture.’
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