Treasury Covid anti-fraud taskforce recoups less than planned
A Treasury taskforce set up to recover billions of pounds fraudulently taken out under the Covid-19 government support schemes has recouped less money than initially intended.
The Taxpayer Protection Taskforce was unveiled in then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget in March 2021. It pledged to recover between £800m and £1bn of around £5.8bn estimated to have been stolen or incorrectly taken from various state support schemes during the pandemic.
These included funds taken via the government’s furlough scheme, the self-employed income support programme and its Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
However, in a statement on the government’s website last week, the Treasury revised down estimates of the amount its taskforce would recoup to between £525m and £625m, which is between £275m and £375m less than originally intended, according to The Times.
Read more: How exposed are the Covid loan schemes to fraud ?
The Treasury said this was because less had been stolen than it had initially thought, with the likely loss now expected to be £4.5bn rather than £5.8bn. It said it would wind down the taskforce from next March, as planned.
An HMRC spokesperson told The Times: “We remain dedicated to tackling error and fraud in the Covid-19 support schemes, and moving this work into business-as-usual compliance activity is the most efficient way to ensure we protect and recover taxpayers’ money.”
Last month, former British Business Bank chief Catherine Lewis La Torre said that Covid loan fraud was not as bad as initially feared.
In an interview with The Times, she said that “the vast majority of borrowers that took out those loans” did so in good faith and have been paying them back, or have refinanced with their bank.
Read more: MPs attack government for being “complacent” in recovering BBLS fraud