Gransnet forums

News & politics

Page 1 of 1
Flip | Customise

"Outsourcing&qu ot; and corrupt practices

(4 Posts)
Add comment | Report
Eloethan Wed 15-Nov-17 09:33:00

Did anyone see the Student Loan Scandal Panorama programme? I was absolutely amazed at the vast amounts of money that conmen are making through taking a cut of student loans that they fraudulently obtain for people who would not normally be eligible for the courses applied for. These conmen showed the prospective students how to doctor cvs, and also provided bogus references - for a price of course. Many of these "students" were working full time and only popping in to the "colleges" to sign in. In order to gain their qualifications, it was arranged for assignment writers to produce their assignments for them and for genuine qualification certificates to be fraudulently obtained from the examining bodies.

Many of these colleges are linked to universities but, as with all this type of outsourcing, it seems that there is very little monitoring going on and plenty of room for corrupt practices.

We have now seen this sort of corruption in all sorts of outsourced services and it is costing millions and millions of pounds of taxpayers' money. In my view, all these examples show at least one very good reason why the privatisation of formerly public services - attracting "entrepreneurs" whose only interest is in making as much money as possibl - is a very bad idea,

Add comment | Report
Iam64 Wed 15-Nov-17 09:37:29

I didn't see the programme but share your horror Eloethan. You are absolutely right that all the examples show good reason why the privatisation of public services is not the right way to go.
Look what's happening with social care, agencies pulling out because they can no longer make a profit. Children placed in very expensive out of borough placements because they are challenging, costing thousands each week. LA's weren't perfect, what service is? I still believe its better for local services to be provided by the local council, who should well funded by central government.

Add comment | Report
GracesGranMK2 Wed 15-Nov-17 13:12:42

I'm afraid this isn't the first time that this sort of thing has happened.

It always seems to me that it ends up costing very much the same whichever way we do it. It appears there is a basic cost. On top of this there is either the cost of well paid employees running a decent service for the state or someone making large, sometimes but by no means always, fraudulent profits though an outsourced, privatised model.

I have never been able to see why some people prefer to put larges sums of tax payers money in a few peoples pockets, sometimes for a much inferior service, rather than smaller sums in more peoples pockets to provide a good and monitored service.

Add comment | Report
vampirequeen Wed 15-Nov-17 13:42:08

Privatisation opened the doors to more corruption. The student loan system is, in itself, corrupt. My loan was £6000. I didn't start to pay it back until I was earning over a certain amount but the interest was adding from day one. By the time I started to pay it back (at around £130 a month) I already owed around £12000. I paid the monthly amount for several years (no choice it's deducted at source) and by the time I had to stop working I owed about £2000. Since that time the loan has continued to have interest added to it so now I owe around £6000 again and it is increasing every month. I'm lucky in that I took out the loan when it stopped being payable when you reached retirement age. The terms and conditions are different now. But over the years I paid back about £10000 for a £6000 loan. If it was possible for me to start to pay it off again it would have cost me at least £16000 which is a hell of a lot of interest.

Page 1 of 1
Flip | Customise