despair

Loan Charge “Utterly Crippling Anxiety & Suicidal Ideation”

The Loan Charge & Taxpayer Fairness APPG is set to publish the results from their recent call for evidence and has released some early details of one individual’s situation.  The impact goes so much wider than purely financial, which at an average bill in excess of 6 figures is bad enough.  Below is an extract of one personal statement submitted.

Personal impact so far:

  • marriage breakdown (30 years), divorce in progress
  • nervous / mental breakdown (2 years ago), ongoing therapy required
  • not able to invest in my future (for fear of losing it all)
  • utterly crippling anxiety and suicidal ideation

Likely impact if loan charge enforced:

  • bankruptcy
  • I’m not sure how much worse my mental health could get – I think they’ve already done their worst with the uncertainty which has been hanging over me

In another extract someone “Contemplated suicide on many occasions and regularly in my thoughts.”  And sadly another person also openly said they have also experienced suicidal thoughts at times, wholly and exclusively due to HMRC, HM Treasury and the Loan Charge.  

In response to our tweets on the subject, we received “There are lots and lots with these thoughts. Including me. It’s torture. You can’t see a future. Even tomorrow is an ambition to get through. You live it 24/7.”

Other snippets reveal more of the wider impact:

  • have to sell our family home… need to move to a different area, kids change schools, eldest change college… impact on children’s mental health
  • I used to be ambitious but since the loan charge my aspirations have disappeared

These are just a few examples of people broken by the #LoanChargeScandal, there are many thousands more affected.  How much longer will the government keep turning a blind eye to the impact of their flawed Loan Charge policy?

The final word goes to Sarah Gabbai, tax lawyer, who said on twitter “No tax system should be allowed to destroy people’s lives like this. Ever.”

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