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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

COVID-19 Employment Support Schemes

Status: Closed Opened: 14 Oct 2022 Closed: 1 Jun 2023 14 recommendations 12 conclusions 1 report

In March 2020 the government announced two schemes to support employment during the pandemic: the Coronavirus Job Retention or “furlough” scheme, and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). In total, the two schemes cost close to £100 billion of taxpayers’ money. A report by the National Audit Office has found that the employment support schemes …

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Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Fortieth Report - COVID employment support schemes HC 810 8 Mar 2023 26 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

5 items
6 Recommendation Fortieth Report - COVID employment supp… Not Addressed

The Departments have yet to fully capture the lessons that must be learnt from the...

The Departments have yet to fully capture the lessons that must be learnt from the employment support schemes to inform future large-scale government financial interventions. We have stressed throughout our work examining the COVID-19 pandemic the vital importance of government learning lessons from its preparedness and response. It is imperative …

Government response. The government response is completely unrelated to the recommendation, and instead discusses DVLA driving license backlogs.
HM Treasury
7 Conclusion Fortieth Report - COVID employment supp… Not Addressed

We also asked the Departments whether the evaluations would cover the schemes’ effects on groups...

We also asked the Departments whether the evaluations would cover the schemes’ effects on groups who were not eligible and groups that were supported, including those on furlough who took a second job.10 The Departments committed to looking at whether the evaluations could cover the groups of people not eligible …

Government response. The government response is completely unrelated to the conclusion, and instead discusses cancer waiting times and NHS funding.
HM Treasury
15 Conclusion Fortieth Report - COVID employment supp…

As part of our initial inquiry into fraud and error across COVID-19 support schemes in...

As part of our initial inquiry into fraud and error across COVID-19 support schemes in June 2021, we concluded that departments did not make enough use of counter fraud expertise when designing new initiatives to ensure they minimise losses to the taxpayers, and that gaps in information sharing was hindering …

HM Treasury
16 Conclusion Fortieth Report - COVID employment supp…

We also received written evidence from the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

We also received written evidence from the Chartered Institute of Taxation. It told us the SEISS application process was likely to have contributed to ineligible claims. It said that, because taxpayers rather than agents had to apply for SEISS, HMRC made the application process simple and straight forward, but in …

HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
17 Nov 2022 Beth Russell · HM Treasury, Janet Alexander · HM Revenue and Customs, Jim Harra · HMRC View ↗

Correspondence

1 letter
DateDirectionTitle
29 Nov 2022 — Correspondence from Janet Alexander, Director Compliance Operations Directorate…