Taxwatch: HMRC needs resources to go after Covid fraudsters

While the Department for Work and Pensions has been handed £510m to tackle the estimated £3.4bn Covid-related rise in benefits fraud, HMRC is set to spend just £155m over the next two years on clawing back the estimated £5.8bn lost through Covid support schemes. Taxwatch has questioned the disparity, with executive director George Turner saying: “I can see no possible justification why the Treasury is putting vastly more resources into tackling benefits fraud, when the amount of money lost to tax fraud is significantly higher.” He said fraudsters were “taking advantage whilst so many people were suffering”, making it a “particularly heinous crime”, adding that HMRC “needs to be given the resources to go after these people.” The Mail reports that HMRC officials are not pushing for more money because they do not believe increased funding would necessarily result in more success, with sources suggesting that as much of the suspected Covid-related tax fraud only involved very small sums it would not be cost-effective to chase it up.

 

Daily Mail

 

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