Millions of struggling workers have "not received a penny" from the government's multibillion-pound Covid support schemes despite being forced out of work.
Parliament's spending watchdog has called on the government to explain and fix issues with the tax system that have denied a number of freelancers and self-employed workers financial support during the coronavirus pandemic.
The cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) said many hard-pressed workers have been left to fend for themselves, while large corporations received taxpayer support and paid their executives large bonuses.
It said "quirks in the tax system" and problems with HM Revenue and Customs' computer systems had allowed people to fall through the cracks during a time of crisis.
Moreover, it said HMRC's dated computerised systems made it difficult to identify fraud.
In total, it is understood that 3million taxpayers – 10% of the UK workforce – have received no help since the start of the pandemic almost a year ago.
Mps said self-employed workers and freelancers are the most likely to be excluded.
It said HMRC should, within six weeks, publish an explanation of why it cannot help those freelancers and other groups that have been excluded from receiving any support.
It comes amid pressure for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend both furlough and the self-employed support grant to accommodate those affected by the latest lockdown.
Have you been refused support for no reason? Get in touch: emma.munbodh@mirror.co.uk
In one example, the PAC said it was common in some sectors – such as the media – for freelancers to work on a series of short-term employment contracts with gaps in between, which could mean they miss-out on financial support.
The government has spent more than £46billion subsidising the wages of almost 10million jobs since the pandemic began through the furlough scheme, which has been extended until the end of April.
However, the report warned HMRC's out-of-date systems making it tougher for HMRC to provide reliable and timely data, which, as a result, has left many vulnerable people without support.
Meg Hillier, the chair of the PAC, said: "As public spending balloons to unprecedented levels in response to the pandemic, out-of-date tax systems are one of the barriers to getting help to a significant number of struggling taxpayers who should be entitled to support. And the system is going to struggle, and in many cases fail, to capture or deal with those wrongly claiming it."
