Queue here for UK's £1bn foreign aid cashpoint

[dutchman]

YOUR cash is doled out in envelopes and on ATM cards loaded with money



Standing in line, Pakistani families wait at a cashpoint used to withdraw money on cards loaded with funds from British taxpayers.

More than £1billion of our foreign aid budget has been given away in cash over the past five years, it can be revealed today.

Despite warnings of fraud, officials have quietly quadrupled expenditure on cash and debit cards that recipients can spend at will.

The budget has soared from £53million in 2005 to an annual average of £219million in the period 2011-15. MPs last night compared the foreign cash handouts to ‘exporting the dole’.

As much as £300million is being lavished on a scheme in Pakistan that has been dogged by claims of corruption.

The men and women pictured above are queuing at a cash machine in Peshawar used by many to withdraw money under the project.

Around 235,000 families are pocketing payments every three months to boost their incomes, funded by UK taxpayers. Despite judging the scheme high risk, Whitehall officials plan to expand it to 441,000 Pakistani households by 2020.

The revelations fuelled calls from MPs for the Government to ditch the commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid.

Backbenchers have argued it is a scandal that so much is being spent abroad while elderly care in the UK is in crisis and town halls are threatening double-digit council tax hikes to close a funding gap.

Nigel Evans, a Tory MP who sits on the Commons international development committee, last night demanded an investigation into the £1billion cash handouts.

He said: ‘Normally this sort of aid is only given in a crisis or emergency when it is the only way to give help.

‘It only should be a temporary measure, but it seems like we’re exporting the dole to Pakistan, which is clearly not a clever idea.

‘Anything that involves money needs to be properly scrutinised and is clearly open to fraud with money siphoned away when it ought to be directed to those most in need.

‘This is something that International Development Secretary Priti Patel needs to look at urgently to ensure that there is proper accounting for how this money is being delivered.’

More than 9.3million people across 14 countries have received cash payments funded by the British government since 2010.

[dutchman]

Pakistan cash transfers defended as MP says aid programme amounts to 'exporting the dole'



Officials have defended British taxpayer-funded cash handouts to people in Pakistan as a senior Tory MP called for a review of the programme which he compared to "exporting the dole".

The Department for International Development (DfID) said the programme was helping the poorest families in Pakistan and was an efficient and effective way to make sure they had the support they need.

DfID insisted that independent reports had praised the use of cash transfer schemes, there was a "zero-tolerance" approach to fraud and a shift to biometric payments would make the BISP more secure.

A DfID spokesman said: "Cash transfers allow aid to be more efficiently targeted to those who need it, when they need it. In Pakistan, the roll out of biometric payments makes our programme one of the most secure cash transfers in the world, and means British taxpayers can be sure that the help they provide goes to the less fortunate, not those abusing the system.

"We have a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and corruption and we have robust systems in place to protect our investments."

[Melisandre]

Why is our government sending this aid to Pakistan when they Pakistan can afford to send 5 billion to India .
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2016 ... last-year/

[rebbonk]

Officials have defended...

Defending the indefensible!

From my experience, the corruption in this country (of which there is plenty) is nothing compared to other parts of the world.

[dutchman]

I wonder how someone in this country who has just discovered their regular ATM payment has been suspended by the DWP feels about seeing someone overseas still able draw out British government cash?