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Southport and  Mersey Reporter -  Your free online newspaper service covering the Merseyside region - (Greater Liverpool).
Covering the news in and around Merseyside

MERSEY REPORTER

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Issue:- 21 February 2013

Don't get caught on the net by tax rebate phishing scam

TAXPAYER reported almost 80,000 tax rebate phishing emails last year (2012), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have revealed, as they warn people not to fall victim to the email scams sent by fraudsters. The emails promise a tax refund in exchange for personal, credit card or banking details. However, people who respond risk opening their account to fraud and having details sold on to organised criminal gangs. Emails often link to a clone of HMRC's genuine website to trick unsuspecting taxpayers into handing over their details, but HMRC never sends emails about a genuine tax rebate. HMRC took action to close down 522 illegal sites in 2012, which showed these emails originated from a number of countries including the United States of America, Russia and Japan, as well as central and eastern Europe. Gareth Lloyd, Head of Digital Security for HMRC said:- "HMRC does not email customers about tax refunds; we only ever contact customers who are genuinely due tax back in writing, by post. If anyone receives an email offering a tax rebate and claiming to be from HMRC, please send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk before deleting it permanently. HMRC does everything it can to ensure customers are safe online and we are working closely with other law enforcement agencies to target the criminals behind this serious crime."

To help customers stay safe online, HMRC strongly advises customers to:-

► Check the advice published on the HMRC website, where they can see if the email received is listed.

► Forward suspicious emails to HMRC at:- phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk  and then delete it from your computer / mail account.

► Do not click on websites or links contained in suspicious emails or open attachments.

► Follow advice from:- getsafeonline.co.uk.

► Anyone who has answered one of these emails should forward the email and disclosed details to:-
security.custcon@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.

If you have reason to believe that you have been the victim of an email scam, report the matter to your bank/card issuer as soon as possible. If in doubt please check with HMRC at:- hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-attempts.htm.

Federation of Small Businesses Spots Employment in Merseyside is behind North West

MERSEYSIDE'S jobs market is lagging behind the North West and UK averages, according to the latest official figures, despite an upturn in employment across the country. The Federation is responding to the figures, published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), by calling for measures to stimulate growth and job creation among small businesses in Merseyside. According to the statistics, which cover the 3 month period from October 2012 to December 2012, the national employment rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 71.5%, up 0.3% points on July 2012 to September 2012 and up 1.1 on a year earlier. There were 29.73 million people in employment aged 16 and over, an increase of 154,000 on July 2012 to September 2012 and up 584,000 compared to a year earlier.  The unemployment rate was 7.8% of the economically active population, down 0.1% points on July to September 2012 and down 0.6 on a year earlier. There were 2.50 million unemployed people, down 14,000 on July to September 2012 and down 156,000 on a year earlier.  However, according to the ONS's  latest data for Merseyside, which covers the period October 2011 to September 2012, just 64.7% of the county's economically active population are in employment compared to 68.5% in the North West as a whole and 70.5% across the UK.  Unemployment in Merseyside stands at 9.9%, compared to 8.8% in the North West and 7.9% across the UK. While the national picture shows that self employment has increased, partly as a result of the rise in redundancies over the past few years, just 6.6% of Merseyside's economically active population are self employed. In the North West as a whole this figure is 8.4% and across the UK it is 9.6%.  John Allan, Chairman of FSB Merseyside, West Cheshire and Wigan, said:- "It's time for a radical re-think of how we achieve small business growth and, by extension, real job creation in Merseyside. Otherwise we will be left further behind. With a month to go before the Budget, small businesses and entrepreneurs in Merseyside are still facing extremely tough conditions in the real economy. Rather than piecemeal measures they need a clear action plan to incentivise growth and start-ups, one that gives them access to the funding they need and removes the barriers created by tax much more substantially than present proposals. To stimulate employment specifically, we need to ease the fear of recruitment, by encouraging more workplace disputes to be settled by mediation, leaving flexible working and shared parental leave arrangements to employers and their staff, rather than creating even more red tape by legislating, and, with inflation and overheads still very high, refraining from replacing the National minimum Wage with the Living Wage. Extending the scope of the existing National Insurance holiday so more firms can benefit from it would also help."  According to today's national ONS figures youth unemployment; those aged between 16 and 24; was 974,000, or 20.8%. That is up from 957,000, or 20.5%, in the 3 months to November.

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