Monday, July 17, 2006
Thursday, July 13, 2006
ID Cards 2
Interesting article -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,1817559,00.html
Also (here comes the maths bit....):
Part of why MP's want to bring in ID cards is to reduce/eradicate Benefit fraud. The current estimate of this is £2Billion/year (from the DWP- which includes some seriously shoddy maths). If we take the Government's cost estmate (and do some equally slapdash maths) it's £6B to set up, and £0.5B/year = £11B over 10 years. If we assume that the introduction of ID cards immediately and completely eradicates benefit fraud (and for some reason fraud also include DWP mistakes...) thats a saving of £9B (£20B not spent on fraud, £11B spent on ID cards. Now thats a pretty daft assumption, I'm sure it'll take a while for Benefit fraud to stop, and I'm equally sure that after some time people will find new loop holes in the system.
Thats if we believe the Governments figures, which are strongly contested by the LSE. The LSE reckon it will cost ~£20B over ten years. Hang on a moment! That equals £2B/year for 10 years, which is what is currently lost on benefit "fraud" (this figure is decreasing as the DWP gets better at detecting fraud - a cut of £0.4B in 2004 for example). So if we go with the LSE's numbers at best the ID cards will get us back to where we are now (£20B spent on ID cards, £20B not spent on "fraud").
If we assume that fraud drops year on year by 10% (less than the 2004 figure of between 16% and 20%) then the cost of "fraud" over 10 years is actually slightly over £13B. This means the ID cards cost £7B more than they save. It even makes the governments own figures look a bit shakey (major uheaval of the the UK constitution for a saving of £2B???)
Quote:
You will be required to attend an enrolment centre with some form of identifying material - bank statements, credit cards, driving licence or birth certificate, who knows what. Then you will be fingerprinted, photographed and the iris in your eye will be measured. You will give the authorities 49 pieces of information about yourself. If you don't, you may be fined up to £2,500. Additional fines of up to £2,500 may be levied every time you fail to comply.
If you fail to inform the police or Home Office when you lose your card, or if it becomes defective, you face a fine of up to £1,000. If you find someone else's card and do not immediately hand it in, you may have committed a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, or a fine, or both. And you will be fined £1,000 if you fail to inform the NIR of any change of address. You will also be expected to tell the authorities your previous addresses. Truly the government will be able to say with all the menace of the underworld enforcer: "We know where you live."
If you don't inform the register of significant changes to your personal life, or any errors they have made, you will face a fine of up to £1,000. Astonishingly, you may also face a fine if you fail to submit to being reinterviewed, rephotographed, refingerprinted and rescanned.
And for all this you will pay between £30 and £93 (or more) to be registered, with further charges to change your details and to replace a lost or stolen card. It's a devilishly clever scam because, in essence, the government is charging you so that it can charge companies that wish to confirm your identity.
Also (here comes the maths bit....):
Part of why MP's want to bring in ID cards is to reduce/eradicate Benefit fraud. The current estimate of this is £2Billion/year (from the DWP- which includes some seriously shoddy maths). If we take the Government's cost estmate (and do some equally slapdash maths) it's £6B to set up, and £0.5B/year = £11B over 10 years. If we assume that the introduction of ID cards immediately and completely eradicates benefit fraud (and for some reason fraud also include DWP mistakes...) thats a saving of £9B (£20B not spent on fraud, £11B spent on ID cards. Now thats a pretty daft assumption, I'm sure it'll take a while for Benefit fraud to stop, and I'm equally sure that after some time people will find new loop holes in the system.
Thats if we believe the Governments figures, which are strongly contested by the LSE. The LSE reckon it will cost ~£20B over ten years. Hang on a moment! That equals £2B/year for 10 years, which is what is currently lost on benefit "fraud" (this figure is decreasing as the DWP gets better at detecting fraud - a cut of £0.4B in 2004 for example). So if we go with the LSE's numbers at best the ID cards will get us back to where we are now (£20B spent on ID cards, £20B not spent on "fraud").
If we assume that fraud drops year on year by 10% (less than the 2004 figure of between 16% and 20%) then the cost of "fraud" over 10 years is actually slightly over £13B. This means the ID cards cost £7B more than they save. It even makes the governments own figures look a bit shakey (major uheaval of the the UK constitution for a saving of £2B???)
Monday, July 10, 2006
ID cards "doomed"
Thank fork. A totally stupid idea from a totally stupid little man with a big big grin.
From: Foord, David (OGC)
Sent: 08 June 2006 15:17
Subject: RE: Procurement Strategy
"even if everything went perfectly (which it will not) it is very debatable (given performance of Govt ICT projects) whether whatever TNIR turns out to be (and that is a worry in itself) can be procured, delivered, tested and rolled out in just over two years and whether the resources exist within Govt and industry to run two overlapping procurements."
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Kingpin Beach party
After a busy three weeks of travelling (must fill in claim forms, must fill in claim forms, must fill in claim forms) blew off steam at the Kingpin Beach Party, which was really fun. Was also celebrating Caroline and Rob's birthday and Mark getting a job. All very exciting.Pictures of the fun and games here and here.
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