Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Featured

Government to write off £1 billion in Covid support loans paid in error

More than £1 billion in Covid support loans paid to fraudsters or in error is to be written off.

An estimated £2.2 billion is thought to have “gone astray”.

Recovering the money is proving slow and costly, reports MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

So far, only £11 million is back in Government coffers.

Since March 2020 – the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain – the Business Department provided councils with £25 billion of pandemic business-support grants to help eligible firms.

However, errors led to millions being paid out erroneously.

The total is estimated to be as much as £985m.

The PAC report said:

“The department believes it will not recoup the majority of this, given there was not deliberate fraud and the businesses were generally struggling due to Covid.

“The payments were not paid in line with Parliament’s intention therefore it is unclear why the department is not attempting to recover grants paid in error.”

The committee’s MPs said they have yet to see the defence from officials that most of the missing money was paid in error rather than fraud.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Featured

King Charles III is to be the first British monarch to address the French Senate when he makes a state visit to France and...

Featured

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has personally thanked Britain for its “big support” in its war against an invading Russian army. Mr Zelensky flew into...

Europe

On 1 May this year Belgian journalist Roland Delacore wrote a personal opinion piece about the Church of Almighty God, which was published in...

Europe

Aigul Kuspan, the ambassador of Kazakhstan to the Kingdom of Belgium and head of mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the European Union,...