In a letter to Lucy Frazer QC MP, the Loan Charge & Taxpayer Fairness APPG have outlined their early view of responses to their recent call for evidence on the loan charge:
“We are in the process of compiling this evidence and will share this with you, but already we can tell you that the situation people are in due to the Loan Charge is awful, with a deeply worrying number of people having expressed or expressing suicidal thoughts.”
It is truly shocking that a government’s financial policy can be so flawed, draconian and punitive that those affected are considering suicide, and this latest evidence is in addition to a number of deaths already very sadly linked to the loan charge.
MPs have expressed concerns over the loan charge policy for years and following the appointment of Lucy Frazer as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, both the APPG and tax professionals wrote to her seeking engagement to consider all of the issues. These letters appear to have fallen on deaf ears with Frazer so far failing to respond to the tax professionals, and her response to the APPG was “evasive, misleading and in some cases completely ignored the question asked.”
There has been a lack of reliable and credible information in relation to the impact of the loan charge, hence the APPG’s recent call for evidence, the responses to which are currently being collated and analysed. Their letter goes on to urge Lucy Frazer QC MP to properly look at all this evidence and to then properly engage with the APPG via an open meeting which would include other officials in attendance.
The impact of the loan charge is incredibly serious and must be properly heard, so surely Frazer will accept the opportunity to meet and engage? She simply cannot continue to blindly ignore the issues and refuse proper political scrutiny.