Civil servants banned from buying most expensive train tickets after £3m bill

Five hundred senior civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions are to be banned from claiming the most expensive first-class rail tickets after landing the taxpayer with a £3m bill last year for out-of-town visits to jobcentres and benefit offices.

Why did climate change Minister give a Commons pass to his friend who is a green lobbyist?

The climate change Minister is at the centre of a sleaze row after it was revealed that he gave a Commons pass to the director of an environmental lobbying company.

Share sharks made £190m profits from HBOS

City watchdogs are expected to investigate how speculators made a £190million profit from HBoS shares in a frenzied two minutes of trading immediately before news of the bank’s rescue was made public.

Knife crime worse than thought, new figures show

Police figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that forces in England and Wales are on course to record a total of 38,000 serious knife crimes this year – more than 100 a day.

You pay £28m for Euro MPs

Taxpayers are forking out £28million a year to keep Britain’s 78 Euro MPs on the Brussels gravy train. They can pocket up to £360,000 each in pay and perks without having to account for a penny.

Killers and rapists can pick up as much state money as a victim’s grieving mum,

Nearly 150 patients detained under the Mental Health Act receive up to £95-a-week incapacity benefit. An average single mother gets only around £60.50 a week in income support, while a typical single OAP gets £92 state pension.

Benefits worker invented an ‘army of triplets’ to help gang hijack £250,000 in tax credits

A Jobcentre worker invented an army of imaginary triplets to help a gang pocket £250,000 by hijacking benefits accounts.