A WARRANT HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR DAN PENTEADO'S

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THE TELEGRAPH 

BBC ROGUE TRADERS' DAN PENTEADO HANDS HIMSELF INTO POLICE OVER FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

Dan Penteado, who chases down bogus workmen with presenter Matt Allwright on the Rogue Traders part of the show, is accused of pocketing more than £24,000 of government payouts he wasn't entitled to while he worked for the BBC. Dorset police applied for an arrest warrant at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court earlier this week after Penteado, 40, failed to respond to letters of enquiry sent to him by Bournemouth Borough Council.

He was sent a court summons to appear before Bournemouth Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to answer several charges of fraud. But he failed to show up and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Yesterday Dorset police today confirmed they were making enquiries to trace Penteado so they could arrest him. But last night Penteado handed himself into the police and insisted it had been a 'misunderstanding.'

He told The Mirror: "It's all a misunderstanding that's causing a lot of grief for my family. "There is no arrest warrant. I've been to the police station and I've not been arrested." Johanne McNamara, prosecuting for Bournemouth Borough Council, told magistrates that Penteado, a private investigator, stated he was a student to claim the Council Tax benefit from 2008 to 2012. She said: "Mr Penteado was claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit on the basis he was a full-time student with a family, he received benefit on that basis. "Over a period of time his position has changed. He was actually employed on BBC's Rogue Traders' programme as a motorbike rider.

"There are a number of offences. "Some relate to failing to disclose a bank account which his wages were paid into, others relate to failing to notify a change in his circumstances when he was hired by the BBC."She told the court that his BBC wages varied from year to year. Miss McNamara said that in 2008 he was paid more than £16,000 by the BBC and between July 2009 to March 2012 he received more than £15,000.

He then received a further £18,000 for work done between July 2010 and January 2011 and more than £6,000 for work done between May and December 2011. Miss McNamara said he had been overpaid £24,077.60 in housing and council tax benefit that he would not have been entitled to if he declared his BBC work. A spokesman for Dorset police said: "We can confirm that an arrest warrant has been issued for Mr Penteado over allegations of benefit fraud.

"It will go to our warrants' department as a normal investigation so we can try and serve it as soon as possible. We will obviously look to try and find out where he is." According to the BBC website, Portuguese-born Penteado started working with Mr Allwright in 2001 and has been an integral part of Rogue Traders and Watchdog since then. In the last series of Rogue Traders, he and Allwright confronted eight business owners they felt were ripping-off the public across the UK. When he is not working on Rogue Traders he works as a private investigator in the UK and abroad.

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PENSION CREDIT CHANGE BOOSTS HOUSEHOLD INCOME

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THE GUARDIAN

MORE THAN 500,000 PENSIONER HOUSEHOLDS WILL BE BETTER OFF AS NEW SAVINGS LIMIT PROVIDES BENEFIT BOOST

Pensioners are set to receive a small boost to their incomes. Hundreds of thousands of pensioners with small amounts of savings could have their income boosted following a change to benefit rules implemented today. An estimated 540,000 pensioner households will see their income rise by an average of £4 a week because the government has increased the amount of savings they are allowed to hold without having their pension credit entitlement reduced.

The pension credit tops up the income of those aged 60 or over who are living on a low income – up to £130 if you are single or £198.45 if you have a partner (these limits may differ if you are a carer or are disabled, or have certain housing costs). When the Department for Work and Pensions checks a person's entitlement to pension credit it takes their savings into consideration when calculating how much money they are due.

Until now the first £6,000 of savings was disregarded, then every £500 of savings above that threshold was assumed to produce £1 of income and the pension credit tapered accordingly. The basic guarantee part of pension credit entitlement is reduced in line with any assumed income earnings on a £1 for £1 basis, but the taper varies according to which other benefits you claim.

But the threshold has now been raised to £10,000, meaning pensioners with savings could get up to £8 a week extra (£1 for every £500 increase in the threshold). Some people with savings of more than £6,000 who have previously just missed out on benefits might also be brought into entitlement by the change and will need to make a claim. The higher "capital disregard" will also apply to people aged 60 or above who receive Council Tax or housing benefit.

Age Concern and Help the Aged (the charities merged earlier this year but have not yet changed their name) welcomed the uplift to pensioners' incomes but pointed out that millions of older people are still missing out on the financial help they are entitled to through pension credit and other benefits. Andrew Harrop, head of policy at Age Concern and Help the Aged, said: "The changes to the way income from savings is worked out are good news for hundreds of thousands of older people who can certainly do with a small top-up to their weekly income.

"The fact that savings up to £10,000 will be ignored for the purposes of working out benefit entitlements should encourage more older people on modest incomes to check whether they might be missing out on financial help which is rightfully theirs. "This small improvement, though, won't hide the fact that the means-tested system is failing to help many of the older people who most need its help. Up to £5bn goes unclaimed by older people each year and one in three entitled pensioners aren't claiming pension credit."

The charity has called consistently for the government to introduce a system of paying older people their entitlements automatically, rather than relying on them to claim, and a pilot trial is planned. But in the meantime it urges people to check whether they could be entitled to benefits by using a simple benefits checker on its website or to call the Pension Service on 0800 99 1234.

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PLAYING THE SYSTEM: GETTING THE MOST OUT THE NEW HOMES BONUS

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THE GUARDIAN 

RESEARCH BY FORMER HOUSING MINISTER NICK RAYNSFORD SUGGESTS THE INCENTIVE IS PAID TO COUNCILS EVEN IF NO NEW HOMES ARE BUILT

Are councils playing the system over the new homes bonus, being paid the incentive even where no new properties are actually being built? More than 150,000 properties added to the Council Tax register last year by local authorities led to councils receiving money through the new homes bonus (NHB) scheme. But how many of them were actually new? Research by Nick Raynsford, Labour MP and former housing minister, shows 20% of the 158,535 homes that qualified for the bonus in 2011-12 were in Council Tax band A – the lowest of the eight bands, which covers many bedsits and flats.

Some remain part of larger properties that were previously classed as houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) but, under government rules, count as "net additions" to the housing stock following re-classification by the Valuation Office Agency. Cash-strapped councils can make thousands of pounds when a HMO is re-valued and split into separate units. Tenants in band A homes typically pay about £1,000 per year each in Council Tax, while the landlord of a band E or F property is charged about £2,000, a sum normally recouped from tenants through rent.

Not only can an authority increase its Council Tax receipts after a HMO is split into discrete "homes" but, thanks to the bonus, it gains twice. Under the NHB scheme, designed to encourage local authorities to approve new housing, the authority receives a sum equivalent to the Council Tax chargeable on each extra property for six years, plus a further £350 per year if the home is deemed "affordable".

Just under £200m was allocated to councils through the bonus in 2011-12. A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed that the government does not distinguish between new build and conversions when counting additions to the Council Tax register. In Brighton, 68% of the 370 homes that qualified for bonus last year are in band A. Of these, more than one quarter (71 homes) were created by splitting HMOs. Other authorities that received a large proportion of HNB for band A homes include Luton (80%), Kensington and Chelsea (73%) and Bournemouth (52%).

Splitting HMOs into separate units for Council Tax purposes is unpopular with private landlords because it can make properties harder to let. Barry Hodges saw a property he owns in Bournemouth, previously in band E, reclassified as five band A homes. Not all his tenants were willing to pay the extra Council Tax, and so some moved out. Hodges finds it unacceptable that councils receive the bonus as well as extra Council Tax for these properties. "These aren't new homes; they've been there for years," he says. "If you start billing bedsits, it's like a poll tax."

Raynsford does not blame council treasurers for using Council Tax or the bonus to raise extra revenue. "It would be odd if treasurers were not thinking of ways to maximise these figures," he says. But in a letter to the National Audit Office, he claimed that public money was being wasted because there was no evidence that the payment has led to more homes being built. Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, told Raynsford that the bonus could feature in an investigation into housing next year.

Newly built homes that qualified for the bonus last year result from proposals drawn up before the launch of the NHB in late 2010. This includes 124 student homes in Kensington and Chelsea, approved in 2009, that account for the large increase in band A properties in the west London borough. Neither Luton nor Bournemouth can say how many band A homes added to their Council Tax registers in 2011-12 resulted from splitting HMOs.

Figures published last month show that, while the number of new homes completed in England rose by 6% to 31,010 in the first quarter of 2012, the number of starts made by house builders is falling. Seasonally adjusted figures show that starts were made on just 24,140 homes in the first quarter of 2012. This compares with 27,240 the previous quarter and 28,520 during the same quarter 12 months earlier, shortly after the bonus was introduced.

But there are signs that councils are approving more planning applications. Figures complied by the Home Builders Federation show 36,731 applications were approved in England the first quarter of 2012, up from 27,732 the previous quarter and the highest figure for two years. But does any of this show that the bonus is having an effect on planning decisions? Zach Wilcox, an economic researcher at the Centre for Cities, says it is impossible to know whether councils are approving more applications because of the bonus. "Some think it's a reason to approve applications while others don't think it should be factored in, but will take the money anyway," he says.

Replying to a parliamentary question in January, housing minister Grant Shapps welcomed the fact that two-thirds of the homes that attracted the bonus last year are in the lowest three Council Tax bands, reflecting how the scheme rewards the building of lower-cost homes.

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COUNCIL TAX COULD RISE TO EASE BENEFITS CUTS

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THE TELEGRAPH 

WORKING FAMILIES FACE INCREASES IN THEIR COUNCIL TAX BILLS TO PROTECT BENEFITS CLAIMANTS FROM CUTS IN WELFARE SPENDING, ECONOMISTS AND COUNCIL LEADERS HAVE WARNED.

Coalition plans to make local authorities set their own rules for Council Tax benefit could also undermine the Government’s plans for welfare reform, it was suggested yesterday. The Institute for Fiscal Studies analysed Coalition plans to reform the rules for Council Tax benefit and identified a number of potentially serious problems. 

Next year, the Government is planning to scrap the national system of Council Tax benefit, which gives discounts on the tax for low-income households including the unemployed. 

Under the new system, local authorities will be given control of money for Council Tax benefit. The sum available for the benefit will also be cut by 10 per cent. Because Council Tax benefit for pensioners is protected, that cut could mean much larger reductions in areas with large numbers of retired residents.

In parts of Dorset and Yorkshire, for example, working-age claimants would face a 33 per cent cut in Council Tax benefit. The IFS said the 10 per cent cut would leave councils facing a choice between making significant cuts in benefit for working-age households and finding the money elsewhere, either by cutting services or increasing tax. Scotland’s devolved administration has taken the choice to find the money elsewhere, to avoid major cuts in benefit payments.

The IFS calculated that the average English local authority choosing to do the same would either have to cut spending on other services by 0.4 per cent, or increase Council Tax by 1.9 per cent. Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said that councils are being put in an impossible position and may have to increase taxes.

"Councils are extremely worried about how they're going to protect deserving and vulnerable people from the £500 million cut to Council Tax benefit next year,” he said. “They can either cease helping the working poor, or continue to support them by taking money from other services or putting up Council Tax.” In a report on the Council Tax benefit reform, the IFS suggested that a localised benefit regime could “undermine” the Coalition’s flagship Universal Credit welfare reform.

Universal Credit, due to begin next year, is meant to integrate all benefits into a single system, and ensure that people claimants are always better off if they take paid work. However, Council Tax benefit has been left out of the new system, and the IFS warned that trying to co-ordinate the local and national benefits system would be complex and possibly damaging.

Depending on how councils design their welfare rules, the effect could be to “reintroduce some of the extremely weak work incentives that Universal Credit was supposed to eliminate.” Overall, the IFS concluded, the localisation of Council Tax benefit “has the potential to undermine many of the positive impacts of Universal Credit.”

Bob Neill, the local government minister, said that the Government's reforms were right. He said: "It is right that local authorities, who collect Council Tax, have a strong incentive to put in place a fairer local Council Tax support scheme that helps their residents get back into employment based on local priorities."

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YES, WE CHEAT THE SYSTEM, BUT GIVE US HELP TO STOP

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THE OBSERVER

PARENTS WHO ADMIT THAT THEY CLAIM BENEFITS WHILE DOING CASH-IN-HAND JOBS, BUT INSIST 'NEED RATHER THAN GREED' IS THEIR MOTIVATION

'I was telling my kids this morning: you always get what you need but, this year, you mightn't get what you want,' says 33-year-old single mother Kelly. And what do her seven- and nine-year-old boys want for Christmas? 'An Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 - everything every other kid wants,' she says.

Kelly (not her real name) is one of a group of people who have been invited to talk about their attitudes towards work, money and debt at the old Canning Town Public Hall, home to Community Links, a local charity based in the east London borough of Newham.

Christmas this year will prove a tricky exercise in managing kids' expectations for any cash-strapped parents. The difference for Kelly and others at the meeting is that they work in the 'informal economy'. In other words, they are paid 'cash in hand' while claiming state support; to put it bluntly, they are 'benefit cheats'.

Until a couple of weeks ago, you didn't have to look hard in Newham to appreciate that society sees such people as social pariahs. 'We're closing in,' said a poster outside the hall, one of 160 such adverts in the borough. If you crossed the road to the Abbey cash machine, another poster reminded the people of Newham how to shop their benefit-cheat neighbours.

Newham was one of 40 local authorities that recently piloted a 'hard-hitting' £6m advertising campaign by the Department for Work and Pensions. The posters feature an image of a 'target' framing an appropriately furtive 'benefit thief' and inviting the public to ring a 'hotline'. A couple of weeks ago, most of the posters in Newham came down.

A DWP spokesman reckons 600 calls are made every day to the hotline. 'We are investing £6m in this campaign as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce benefit fraud,' he says. Benefit thieves stole an estimated £800m from public funds.' But this figure represents just 0.7 per cent of the total benefits budget, says Community Links.

The campaign will now go nationwide. Work and Pensions Secretary has promised lie-detector tests and the loss of benefits for those on the fiddle. Last week's white paper said income support would be scrapped and claimants moved to jobseekers' allowance. Jobseekers, including single parents with children over seven, will have to take active steps to find work before they are paid benefits.

In Newham, Kelly readily admits she plays the system, but insists that 'need, not greed' is her motivation. She has signed on for the past eight years and has had a string of cash-in-hand jobs, from bar work to collecting money for a loan company. She left the loan company last summer, where she was earning £100 to £150 a week.

She has had salaried work before and says she would like nothing more than to have a proper job again, but she admits: 'The idea of coming off benefits now scares the hell out me. I don't know how I'd survive.' The two big stumbling blocks for her are losing housing benefit, which covers her £97 a week rent, and finding a job with the flexibility to allow for childcare.

Kelly receives about £160 a week in income support and child benefit (as well as housing and Council Tax benefit). Can a family of three live on that? 'Yes, but only if you are prepared literally not to have a life,' she says. 'The fact is my kids want swimming lessons, they want to do their dancing and boxing after school.'

Then there are Kelly's debts. She has 'maxed out' on credit cards and owes £9,000. Earlier this year, she took out a social loan for £700, administered by Jobcentre Plus, for furniture and a new TV, costing £30 a week from her income support. 'This is the worst it's ever been. I've hit rock bottom,' she says.

Tracy, a 31-year-old friend of Kelly's with two children, connects cash-in-hand work with debt. As she puts it: 'You get your money to live from the social and then the cash-in-hand pays the debts you are trying to clear.'

The east London meeting was organised by the newly launched Informal Economy Campaign (www.neednotgreed.org.uk), which is run by Community Links and supported by a coalition of 50 groups, including the TUC and Oxfam. Its aim is to improve the image of a section of the public demonised by press and politicians alike.

The campaign points to research that suggests 12.3 per cent of gross domestic product, around £120bn, is generated by informal economic activity. 'Working cash-in-hand is a survival mechanism, taking people out of absolute poverty but trapping them in relative poverty. It is a way for families to get by,' says campaign co-ordinator Maeve McGoldrick. 'The purpose of the campaign isn't to say that cash-in-hand work is OK, but that we need greater understanding as to why people do it, and base the creation of a more effective welfare system on this. Being on benefits should not in itself be a barrier to work and cash-in-hand work should not be the only way to escape absolute poverty. Many people aren't making money out of it. It's to pay off debt collectors, prevent evictions and provide for unbudgeted expense.'

The campaign is seeking to reform the system so people can make a gradual transition from benefits to formal employment, and aims to help those working cash-in-hand to formalise their work. It argues that prosecution of those acting out of need will ultimately increase debt and poverty levels, forcing people to work cash-in-hand again. 'The benefits system set-up is like an on-and-off switch,' argues McGoldrick. 'You are either in work or you're on benefits and the transition is terrifying. People fear their families will fall deeper into poverty and, when in work, that their safety net is gone. The Jobcentre is no longer able to support you, but you are still struggling.'

The coalition argues that benefit laws act as a disincentive in a number of specific ways: the application of the 'earnings disregard', allowing people to try small bits of work and earn small amounts of money without losing benefits (limited to only £5 a week for single people); the limit on the number of hours claimants can work; and the loss of state support such as housing benefit. It wants a tapered withdrawal of benefits.

It is an approach endorsed by Oxfam. The welfare state must 'reflect the world as it is today, rather than harking back to a time of jobs for life', says Kate Wareing, the charity's director for UK poverty. Many available jobs are 'low-paid, short-term and part-time' and for many people - such as carers and those with poor health - full-time, long-term work isn't possible. 'The welfare system has to change so that people can move from benefits into the type of jobs that are available,' she says. 'So it helps people combine part-time work with some benefit payments if necessary.' For those people who are unable to work, 'an adequate financial safety net must be a basic entitlement - not a luxury,' she adds.

So what does working cash-in-hand mean to those that do it? 'Survival,' says Kelly. 'I do it for the everyday basics.'

Tracy agrees, but also says she loves working. 'It drives me mad when people talk about single mums living on benefits. Well, I don't. I get off my arse and go to work.' Her employer has 'formalised' her job since October, so Tracy now goes through the books. She believes that that is a direct response to the DWP campaign: 'You never know who is going to grass you up.' As a result, she is no longer paid her rent or Council Tax benefit. 'Roughly speaking, I am making £230 a week, but last week I only got £180.' The loss of benefits means that there is little financial incentive for working: 'They don't make it worth your while.'

What does she make of the adverts? 'Don't just come after us; help us. Find out why we're doing this. We are doing it because we don't have enough money to live on.'

She points out that her 11-year-old son wears adult sizes. 'My daughter's trainers are £20 a pair and his are £50. If I have to buy them a pair of trainers and I'm living off £130 a week, that's going to leave me with £50.'

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MINISTER DISMISSES TORY COUNCIL TAX CLAIMS

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THE GUARDIAN 

A SENIOR GOVERNMENT MINISTER HAS DISMISSED AS "JUVENILE" TORY CLAIMS THAT HOMEOWNERS WHO LIVE IN THE MOST DESIRABLE AREAS WILL FACE LARGE HIKES IN THEIR COUNCIL TAX.

Peter Hain, Northern Ireland and Welsh Secretary, rubbished the Tories' allegation that the government was planning to tax people in England for the neighbourhood they live in under a scheme currently being trialled in Northern Ireland. 

His comments followed reports that home-owners and tenants faced Council Tax bills up to four times their current level if they lived in areas with low crime rates and good schools. The reports said the current banding system would be scrapped and replaced with an annual bill levied at 0.78% of the value of each property.  

All 21m homes in England would be revalued according to their location, as well as size and features. Shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman said the government was using "Big Brother computers to hike taxes." "First, they want to log and record every feature of your home from double glazing to number of bedrooms." "Next, they want clipboard-wielding bureaucrats to have the right to inspect your home. 

Now, Labour intend to tax you not just for every home improvement, but also the neighbourhood you live in."The reports cited a Parliamentary written answer by local government ministers in which they say: "The market for dwellings may well be influenced by levels of crime and deprivation amongst many other factors."

Spelman said: "This is the hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government - finding ever more stealth ways to tax working families and pensioners, and trampling over privacy when it suits them." But Mr Hain insisted there was no such plan to introduce a system like Northern Ireland's where property owners are facing rates bills based on the value of their home.

"This is Westminster politics of the most juvenile kind," the minister said. "In Northern Ireland, we are introducing a new arrangement to replace one which is three decades old and clearly unfair to those on lower incomes. "The decision to base rates on the value of homes emerged after a period of consultation and had its genesis in the last assembly.

"It is tailor-made for Northern Ireland's different local government finance system and there is no read across for the rest of the UK." The Conservatives' claims surfaced as a review of local government including town hall finances by Sir Michael Lyons is expected within months

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