Partygate is serious but is distracting from a far more serious scandal - Jill Thomas

As someone who has run a financial services company for many years, I am deeply concerned about what is being experienced both regionally and nationally.

In my professional career, I’ve never known a time when so many elderly and vulnerable clients are routinely making contact to find ways of leveraging more money from their investments.

This situation has been mounting for several months and the amount of money being requested is also rising.

In short, it’s become patently obvious to me that many members of this country’s older generation are struggling as inflation manifests itself.

In what can be likened to a ‘perfect storm’, this situation is only expected to worsen in a few weeks when the energy price cap is removed.

Yet the news agenda continues to be almost entirely dominated by ‘Partygate’.

There’s every expectation that the ongoing political scandal surrounding this gathering of government staff during the Covid-19 pandemic when this shouldn’t have happened will continue to evolve.

To be clear, I’m not disputing that there’s a real need for this emerging scandal to be covered both fully and fairly.

But I do strongly suspect that the Government is not as concerned about the myriad headlines being dedicated to Partygate as might initially be imagined.

For as long as this particular story is kept at the forefront of public consciousness then another emerging story which, in my opinion, is of infinitely greater importance remains largely ignored. I’m referring to the Covid fraud inquiry.

In fairness, this nearly leapt to public prominence when Lord Theodore Agnew delivered his resignation statement in the House of Lords last Monday – until its coverage was largely overtaken by salacious tales of bring your own bottles et al.

Lord Agnew had been one of the guardians of the £47bn of public money that had been given to private companies and banks in bounce-back loans (BBLs) between 2020 and 2021.

Of this amount, Lord Agnew asserted that £17bn had been lost and at least £5bn of those losses were to fraud – which represents 1p on income tax.

In other words, BBL fraud alone is estimated to have cost the UK one third of the annual revenue of the new National Insurance levy of 1.25 per cent, which is due to be introduced in April.

He also stated that total fraud loss across the Government is now estimated to be £29bn a year – which represents about 5p on income tax.

Speaking as someone who operates a business here in Sheffield, I find both the scale of this fraud and its potential cost implications for this country simply intolerable.

Everything possible must be done to claw as much of the fraudulently obtained money back so that this situation doesn’t ultimately rebound on the tax payer.

Separately, as a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) registered financial planner, I’m also required to produce a disaster recovery plan (DRP) each year.

While onerous, this has stood me in excellent stead throughout the pandemic.

This Government – and successive ones – must now implement their own DRP to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to cover every future eventuality.

It really is imperative that this country is now run like a business.

And this must happen immediately to ensure that those elderly and vulnerable members of our society truly get the support they both require and deserve.

Jill Thomas is the MD of Future Life Wealth Management