Benefit fraud
For most of us, I am sure, it is hard to imagine being such a scumbag that you see the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic as the perfect opportunity to rob the taxpayer. But there are a lot of such people out there.
Yesterday we learnt that £4.4 billion has been paid by the government to banks to cover defaults and fraud on £77 bn of state guaranteed covid business loans, with a further £6 billion likely to be needed to account for further losses.
Losing £10 for every £77 is a shockingly bad by even this government’s standards. It is hardly surprising that the UK had one of the worst economic hits from Covid and one of the worst recoveries as well.
The money was thrown at business and the frauds, cheats, spivs and chancers took £10 billion and headed for the hills. The banks had no reason to check who they were giving the money to, as they had a full state guarantee for any losses.
At the time I said that it was amazing how red in tooth and claw, free marketeers, who claim to have made their money only by their own hard work, without any help from government, and who looked down on the poor, benefit claimants and the “lazy” were only to happy to fill their boots with free government handouts.
Now it seems a significant proportion were willing to fill their boots and had no intention of giving it back. Nor it seems does the government have any intention of finding these crooks and sending them to prison.
Benefit fraud is, it seems, OK if you are a business.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media