RECENT revelations of Gary Barlow's tax avoidance present the country with another challenge to overcoming poverty.

The main focus of the scandal has been whether Barlow should have his OBE stripped from him, but for me this is missing the point entirely.

Instead of focusing on Barlow and his OBE, we must aim to overcome the huge problem of tax avoidance which results in around £25 billion pounds a year being lost to the treasury.

There are many who argue that since celebrity tax avoidance schemes are legal, there is no issue, and surely any of us would do the same?

But I argue that we all have a duty to pay into the state, and tax is vitally important for funding services that we take for granted, such as the NHS.

Worryingly, more than 1000 celebrities and wealthy individuals have used the same Icebreaker tax avoidance scheme as Barlow, resulting in £340 million pounds worth of tax being lost.

Unfortunately, it is not just celebrities that are guilty of such avoidance schemes, but huge global firms such as Starbucks and Google also avoid their social responsibilities.

In 2011, Amazon had sales of £3.35 billion in 2011, but had a reported tax expense of a meagre £1.8 million and in 2012 Starbucks had sales of £400 million in the UK, yet paid no corporation tax.

Whilst this is happening, people on benefits are vilified for being 'benefit cheats,' despite the fact that only a very small percentage of the population cheat the benefits system.

In fact, the current levels of poverty are startling, with 420 foods banks in the UK and 913,000 people using them- 333,000 of them children. As well as this, 13 million people in the UK live below the poverty line.

All of this highlights the need to crack down on tax avoidance, so the Government can get more money to improve public services and help the neediest.

This will be a big step in reducing inequality in all of British society, as well as ensuring are public services can be improved for the whole of the population.