Covid conmen could cost country up to £7.9bn, think-tank warns
TAXPAYERS FACE losing billions of pounds to fraudsters targeting the Government’s Covid-19 financial rescue schemes, a report has revealed.
The Policy Exchange thinktank said the measures rushed through to save people and businesses from economic ruin were particularly vulnerable to scams because of the size of the packages and the speed with which they were introduced.
A paper published today entitled Daylight Robbery estimates fraud and error could cost the Government between £1.3bn and £7.9bn. The calculation is based on expected fraud rates for Government expenditure from the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.
“The true value may be closer to the upper bound, due to the higher-than-usual levels of fraud that accompany disaster management,” the report said.
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“This is a serious squandering of public finances and properly resourced post-event assurance will be required to reassure the public every possible step has been taken to reduce this level of fraud.”
In a foreword to the report, former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett – the Sheffield Brightside MP until 2015 – said criminals had used the Covid-19 crisis to “dip below the radar” and take advantage of unusual circumstances.
He wrote: “With a further range of substantial recovery measures announced by the Chancellor on July 8, more opportunity exists for those willing to defraud the nation, as well as services and individuals.
“Further steps need to be taken urgently to coordinate across departments and agencies, concentrating on those areas where verification is most difficult to achieve and where self-certification opens opportunity for organised criminal behaviour.”
His warning comes after a man became the first person to be arrested in connection with an alleged fraud of the Government’s furlough scheme.
HM Revenue and Customs arrested the man, 57, from Solihull, on Wednesday, in connection with allegations of a £495,000 fraud of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.