How often is this the case. No money to pay nurses? Gov spaff bns on ppe and track and trace.
Plebs have hosepipe bans? Trillions of litres lost to leaks every year.
Rules for the plebs come from waste in the system.
Keep cold, poor, hungry and compliant.
But is it really “fraud and error” when it was intended to be a bung to the chumblies?
And yet this man is our Prime Minister. I worked for a finance broker doing these schemes. I’m telling you, 70% of the people didn’t need the money. Most were making even more during the pandemic. The others were mostly fraudulent. People with businesses that were pretty dormant. You even had people sell limited companies setup with the right time frame for them to get these loans.
> It’s worth reading the (then) Minister’s statement for the mind-boggling details of failure.
Are they forgetting to mentioned the billions spent on the app that never happened?! Where did that cash go & why wasn’t it paid back if a working app wasn’t delivered … disgusting waste of money
I’m self employed – oddly if I don’t delivered I can’t invoice & expect to get paid … I think that’s called fraud … let alone the damage to the reputation of yr business
Magically no one is named or shamed or held accountable
The idea that Sunak is some economics whizz is PR bullshit. He was massively profligate as chancellor and supports the same agenda as Kwarteng/Truss, only on a different timescale.
Hey hey hey, easy now. That money had gone into *hard working^tm* tories mates pockets.
How dare you discuss that that money should’ve been spent with a modicum of oversight and for the benefit of the population.
Jesus, don’t you like the scraps your political masters leave you? Bunch of fucking ingrates.
That £37b spent on track and trace would have been half of the money the government needs to raise now instead of cutting public spending but here we are.
Why are they just letting all this money go? People used their businesses/personal details to apply for these loans it can’t be hard to investigate them all
So if these Tory chumps last it why aren’t they paying out of their pockets or facing prison time?
If any other employer losses that level of money from a company they get fired and face prosecution.
Make these cunts accountable!
Yeah but the £350 million a week we now have from Brexit should soften the blow, right?
I realise this won’t be a popular opinion here, but of all the reasons to be angry at the government (and there are MANY), this is fairly low in the list.
The government made a deliberate decision to make covid support very easy to claim, with very little in the way of checks to make sure claims were valid. It was argued at the time that it was more important to get money to people and businesses quickly, rather than risk legitimate requests being caught up in an overly bureaucratic claims system. I think this was a reasonable decision to take. In hindsight we can look at all the fraud and waste, but imagine if we’d had a system that made it hard for people in desperate need to get urgent support. Like so many things, there is no perfect solution. Just bad solutions and worse solutions. Personally, I think this was the lesser of the two.
To be really clear – I’m not defending the dodgy deals and handouts to friends of Ministers to supply substandard PPE at massively inflated prices. But that’s a different issue to the one here, and I think that’s important to make clear.
There is zero excuse for what constitutes, at absolute best, as the most appalling mismanagement of public funds so far in UK history.
What “triggers” me most is that this Government’s corporate taxation controls are so riddled with holes, They don’t even know the difference between a company that is currently trading, and one that doesn’t exist at all !!
Curious that They “can’t” keep track of thousands, but They **can** keep track of whether millions have paid their Council Tax bill, for example, and never hesitate to involve the Courts in such matters.
Where were the “checks and balances” against those credited accounts? … where was THAT spreadsheet?
Most importantly, *why* weren’t these credits issued *only* to accounts already known to the PAYE system?
Why weren’t the claimed amounts verified against that company’s PAYE returns?
That this is so simple and fundamental a solution, demonstrates how far from oversight the fund distribution was sought to be.
Yes, yes, wages needed paying (etc) quickly as Covid’s lockdown events developed, but such checks are simply automated, and the data all at hand.
Where is the ardent pursuit of the owners of accounts to which the credits were sent?
Where are the Serious Crime/Organised Crime/Fraud Office investigations into the larger amounts, following the money-trails we all know exist?
That the SCO/SFO are bogged-down in those trails being greatly convoluted , demonstrates *pre-planning*.
All, that participated in accommodating, facilitating, and masking this wealth transfer, this burglary at the Exchequer, this robbery of our Nation … and continue to do so … are Corrupt, it’s as plain and simple as that.
Indeed, to my mind, this was an attack on our State from within and constitutes Treason, as well as speaking volumes as to the sham that is British Justice.
Hardly surprising the Party in power is one that supported (by condoning) their Leader outright lying to our Queen.
The irony is that the businesses that really needed that money and were struggling are paying this back, which often is seriously inhibiting their cash flow, while fraudsters got their loans essentially forgiven.
Without getting into a political debate, everyone is struggling, shame on the people that committed fraud. And I think EVERYONE who takes money from what was intended to profit themselves should be prosecuted.
The Tories are like someone with a gambling habit who then claims they can’t pay their rent.
No, there isn’t any money for that, you’ve given it all away.
Our then Chancellor and now PM was happy to write off £6.7 billion to ‘fraud’ but says we can’t afford to pay nurses their requested amount. The amount written off could increase the average nurse salary by abour 67%
Fraud is illegal. The police should give the government a crime reference number so that the sum defrauded can be claimed on insurance.
The money could be used to fund the police.
Sorted
But nothing for Nurses or other medical staff at NHS. Don’t want to give any more money to an organization in the process of being sold to private industry.
Police officers: are we getting double salary?
Source: am officer.
The registration of new businesses with HMRC rose disproportionately during the furlough scheme, Tories are shit scared of opening this particular can of of worms for obvious reasons.
<deep sarcasm>But, but “benefit scroungers”</deep sarcasm>
It isn’t lost. The Tories know exactly where it is. In theirs and their friends bank accounts.
“Fraud” ? I can see why they wanted to rebrand that with something much less odious in the form of “VIP lanes.”
by covid fraud, I assume you mean the 38 stolen billion which they defrauded from us using the track and trace app as an excuse?
Do you also include the hundreds of millions wasted by peers and tory donors on useless ppe that they charged the taxpayer for?
Also, the millions lost to people like MRS SUNAK, who abused the furlough scheme to enrich herself AND avoided paying tax?
I hope you do mean these people, the people in power and their chums, and I hope you’re not trying to pass the buck onto the small businesses and hard up workers instead of the government criminals who caused all the damage they’re now charging US for…
still, I wouldn’t expect anything less from a tabloid rag.
25 comments
How often is this the case. No money to pay nurses? Gov spaff bns on ppe and track and trace.
Plebs have hosepipe bans? Trillions of litres lost to leaks every year.
Rules for the plebs come from waste in the system.
Keep cold, poor, hungry and compliant.
But is it really “fraud and error” when it was intended to be a bung to the chumblies?
And yet this man is our Prime Minister. I worked for a finance broker doing these schemes. I’m telling you, 70% of the people didn’t need the money. Most were making even more during the pandemic. The others were mostly fraudulent. People with businesses that were pretty dormant. You even had people sell limited companies setup with the right time frame for them to get these loans.
[A previous comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/tvjxg9/deleted_by_user/i3adm91/?context=3) I’ve made on this earlier in the year.
> [Here’s Lord Agnew giving an explanation for some of the fraud on January 24th, 2022. Spoiler: He gives his resignation during his speech.](https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/a675f2f2-ae55-4be2-aec2-385bcecfc545?in=15:31:16)
> I’ve hopefully linked to just before Lord Turncliffe gives his question.
> [Transcript on Hansard for the section linked above.](https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2022-01-24/debates/805E6270-7DF6-4CF8-9487-08F9028A1EE1/CoronavirusGrantSchemesFraud)
> It’s worth reading the (then) Minister’s statement for the mind-boggling details of failure.
Are they forgetting to mentioned the billions spent on the app that never happened?! Where did that cash go & why wasn’t it paid back if a working app wasn’t delivered … disgusting waste of money
I’m self employed – oddly if I don’t delivered I can’t invoice & expect to get paid … I think that’s called fraud … let alone the damage to the reputation of yr business
Magically no one is named or shamed or held accountable
The idea that Sunak is some economics whizz is PR bullshit. He was massively profligate as chancellor and supports the same agenda as Kwarteng/Truss, only on a different timescale.
Hey hey hey, easy now. That money had gone into *hard working^tm* tories mates pockets.
How dare you discuss that that money should’ve been spent with a modicum of oversight and for the benefit of the population.
Jesus, don’t you like the scraps your political masters leave you? Bunch of fucking ingrates.
That £37b spent on track and trace would have been half of the money the government needs to raise now instead of cutting public spending but here we are.
Why are they just letting all this money go? People used their businesses/personal details to apply for these loans it can’t be hard to investigate them all
So if these Tory chumps last it why aren’t they paying out of their pockets or facing prison time?
If any other employer losses that level of money from a company they get fired and face prosecution.
Make these cunts accountable!
Yeah but the £350 million a week we now have from Brexit should soften the blow, right?
I realise this won’t be a popular opinion here, but of all the reasons to be angry at the government (and there are MANY), this is fairly low in the list.
The government made a deliberate decision to make covid support very easy to claim, with very little in the way of checks to make sure claims were valid. It was argued at the time that it was more important to get money to people and businesses quickly, rather than risk legitimate requests being caught up in an overly bureaucratic claims system. I think this was a reasonable decision to take. In hindsight we can look at all the fraud and waste, but imagine if we’d had a system that made it hard for people in desperate need to get urgent support. Like so many things, there is no perfect solution. Just bad solutions and worse solutions. Personally, I think this was the lesser of the two.
To be really clear – I’m not defending the dodgy deals and handouts to friends of Ministers to supply substandard PPE at massively inflated prices. But that’s a different issue to the one here, and I think that’s important to make clear.
There is zero excuse for what constitutes, at absolute best, as the most appalling mismanagement of public funds so far in UK history.
What “triggers” me most is that this Government’s corporate taxation controls are so riddled with holes, They don’t even know the difference between a company that is currently trading, and one that doesn’t exist at all !!
Curious that They “can’t” keep track of thousands, but They **can** keep track of whether millions have paid their Council Tax bill, for example, and never hesitate to involve the Courts in such matters.
Where were the “checks and balances” against those credited accounts? … where was THAT spreadsheet?
Most importantly, *why* weren’t these credits issued *only* to accounts already known to the PAYE system?
Why weren’t the claimed amounts verified against that company’s PAYE returns?
That this is so simple and fundamental a solution, demonstrates how far from oversight the fund distribution was sought to be.
Yes, yes, wages needed paying (etc) quickly as Covid’s lockdown events developed, but such checks are simply automated, and the data all at hand.
Where is the ardent pursuit of the owners of accounts to which the credits were sent?
Where are the Serious Crime/Organised Crime/Fraud Office investigations into the larger amounts, following the money-trails we all know exist?
That the SCO/SFO are bogged-down in those trails being greatly convoluted , demonstrates *pre-planning*.
All, that participated in accommodating, facilitating, and masking this wealth transfer, this burglary at the Exchequer, this robbery of our Nation … and continue to do so … are Corrupt, it’s as plain and simple as that.
Indeed, to my mind, this was an attack on our State from within and constitutes Treason, as well as speaking volumes as to the sham that is British Justice.
Hardly surprising the Party in power is one that supported (by condoning) their Leader outright lying to our Queen.
The irony is that the businesses that really needed that money and were struggling are paying this back, which often is seriously inhibiting their cash flow, while fraudsters got their loans essentially forgiven.
Without getting into a political debate, everyone is struggling, shame on the people that committed fraud. And I think EVERYONE who takes money from what was intended to profit themselves should be prosecuted.
The Tories are like someone with a gambling habit who then claims they can’t pay their rent.
No, there isn’t any money for that, you’ve given it all away.
Our then Chancellor and now PM was happy to write off £6.7 billion to ‘fraud’ but says we can’t afford to pay nurses their requested amount. The amount written off could increase the average nurse salary by abour 67%
Fraud is illegal. The police should give the government a crime reference number so that the sum defrauded can be claimed on insurance.
The money could be used to fund the police.
Sorted
But nothing for Nurses or other medical staff at NHS. Don’t want to give any more money to an organization in the process of being sold to private industry.
Police officers: are we getting double salary?
Source: am officer.
The registration of new businesses with HMRC rose disproportionately during the furlough scheme, Tories are shit scared of opening this particular can of of worms for obvious reasons.
<deep sarcasm>But, but “benefit scroungers”</deep sarcasm>
It isn’t lost. The Tories know exactly where it is. In theirs and their friends bank accounts.
“Fraud” ? I can see why they wanted to rebrand that with something much less odious in the form of “VIP lanes.”
by covid fraud, I assume you mean the 38 stolen billion which they defrauded from us using the track and trace app as an excuse?
Do you also include the hundreds of millions wasted by peers and tory donors on useless ppe that they charged the taxpayer for?
Also, the millions lost to people like MRS SUNAK, who abused the furlough scheme to enrich herself AND avoided paying tax?
I hope you do mean these people, the people in power and their chums, and I hope you’re not trying to pass the buck onto the small businesses and hard up workers instead of the government criminals who caused all the damage they’re now charging US for…
still, I wouldn’t expect anything less from a tabloid rag.