Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: Fraud
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of revenue lost to furlough fraud committed during the pandemic.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
The Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner Tom Hayhoe’s final report to Parliament found many schemes - including Bounce Back Loans - were rolled out with huge fraud risks and no early safeguards – costing the taxpayer millions.
Weak accountability, bad quality data and poor contracting were identified as the primary causes of the £10.9 billion pound losses – which were enough to fund daily free school meals for the UK’s 2.7 million eligible children for eight years.
This government has already recouped almost £400m of Covid support cash.
The government has already actioned many of the Commissioner’s early proposals. These include:
- A voluntary repayment scheme, launched in September, giving claimants until 31 December to pay up.
- Tougher sanctions powers through the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, which became law on 2 December.
- Specialist fraud recovery teams to track down suspected fraudsters and recover taxpayer cash, from 2026.
Estimates of error and fraud for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) are published at: Error and fraud in the COVID-19 schemes: methodology and approach (an update for 2023) - GOV.UK
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