The Taxpayer Protection Taskforce, which was set up by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in March 2021, will be phased out, despite having collected less than 25 per cent of the money lost through misallocation of Covid funds.
The launch of the unit also diverted millions away from other parts of HMRC that could have been used to fund more lucrative recovery work, investigative think-tank Tax Watch said.
HMRC’s Taxpayer Protection Taskforce was set up by the Chancellor using £100m in funding with a view to recovering billions defrauded from the government via misuses of the furlough and Eat Out to Help Out schemes.
It is estimated £3.2bn- £6.4bn was mistakenly given out through the UK’s Covid support schemes – either due to error or fraud. Yet by the time the HMRC taskforce is wound up it is expected to have recovered just £525- £625m.
Shared from City A.M.
