The UK government has recovered just 2% of £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) lost to fraudsters taking advantage of its coronavirus business support program, an initiative announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
By May 2023, more than three years on from the start of pandemic restrictions, only £20.9 million had been recouped from the money estimated to have been lost, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said on Wednesday in a report. It cited the government as saying that checking payments is expensive and that there are legal obstacles to recovering some funds.
“It is simply not good enough to give up on recovering this money simply because it is difficult to do so,” opposition Labour Party MP Meg Hillier, who chairs the committee, said in a statement. “Public trust is harmed if the government shrugs its shoulders at criminals lining their pockets with state support.”
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