Fortieth Report - COVID employment support schemes

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 … Read more 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 that lessons are learnt from the employment support schemes successes and their shortcomings, including the lack of support for some of those in need and the large sums lost in error and fraud. The Departments report they have prepared ‘play books’ on what they have learnt so far. The Departments’ evaluations of the schemes should provide further insights, as should acting upon our recommendation that they compare UK practice with wider international practice. Publishing all the key lessons they identify would help others in government who may need to intervene in future crises. Recommendation 6: The Departments should, by December 2023, publish the lessons that can be learned from the schemes for large-scale financial interventions in the future, and what actions they will take as a result. 8 COVID employment support schemes 1 Impacts and targeting Show less

View Details →

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 …

View Details →

In July 2022, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) estimated that £4.5 billion had been paid to claimants as a result of error and fraud within the two schemes. It told us that this remained its best estimate of the extent of error and fraud within the two schemes.21 In July …

View Details →

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 …

View Details →

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 …

View Details →