By Stefan Boscia
The Treasury has decided to close down its unit charged with recovering money stolen through Covid fraud, after clawing back hundreds of millions less than expected.
The £100m Taxpayer Protection Taskforce was set up by former chancellor Rishi Sunak to recover some of the estimated £5.8bn lost to fraud through three Covid support schemes.
The Treasury aimed to recover between £800m and £1bn from fraudsters, however the Sunday Times today reported the government had revised this figure down to between £525m and £625m.
It is now set to close down the unit in March next year, which was the original timeline for it to be wound up.
The Treasury says the recovery figure has been revised downward, because it is now estimated that £4.5bn was lost to fraudsters and not £5.8bn.
Labour shadow Treasury minister Pat McFadden said: “The Conservative government’s inability to apply even basic security checks to Covid support schemes led to billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being lost to fraud.
“Having failed to act quickly the government seems to have given up – and done so when the new Chancellor is looking to cut spending in other areas.”
The government’s efforts in tackling Covid fraud were widely criticised, with the Treasury minister responsible for this area quitting this year over poor access to resources.
Lord Theodore Agnew said the handling of Covid fraud was “one of the most colossal cock-ups in recent government management”.
Business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said in July that the “Treasury wasn’t serious about fraud” and that the department should be “as hot as mustard on getting money back”.
A HM Revenue and Customs spokesperson said: “We remain dedicated to tackling error and fraud in the Covid-19 support schemes, and moving this work into business-as-usual compliance activity is the most efficient way to ensure we protect and recover taxpayers’ money.”
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