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<p>At the Spring Budget 202,1 the Government announced a £100 million investment to
form the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce. This enabled HMRC to significantly extend
work to tackle fraud and error in the COVID-19 support schemes that HMRC administered
(Self Employment Income Support Scheme, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Eat Out
to Help Out). These payments are grants rather than loans. HMRC does not administer
or undertake compliance of other COVID-19 financial support packages, such as Bounce
Back Loans.</p><p> </p><p>The £100 million funding covers backfilling the staff used
to resource the taskforce.</p><p> </p><p>In 2021-22 the taskforce had £41million allocated
to the staffing budget and is forecasting £59 million in staffing for 2022-23.</p><p>
</p><p>During 2021-22, the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce consisted of 1,147 Full Time
Equivalent (FTE) compliance officers, reassigned from other teams across HMRC. As
of 31 July 2022, there are 1,203 FTE in the taskforce.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC designed
the Self Employment Income Support Scheme, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Eat
Out to Help Out schemes to prevent fraud, both in the eligibility criteria and the
claim process itself. HMRC also put in place a series of checks on claims before they
were paid, blocking those that were highly indicative of criminal activity.</p><p>
</p><p>The Government and HMRC are taking tough action to tackle fraudulent behaviour.
Anyone who keeps grant money despite knowing they were not entitled to it faces having
to repay up to double the amount they received, plus interest, and potentially face
criminal prosecution.</p><p> </p><p>The Taxpayer Protection Taskforce undertakes one-to-one
investigations where there is a suspected overpayment of an HMRC administered COVID-19
grant. These overpayments may be due to error or fraud, therefore the total number
of investigations opened and concluded does not distinguish between error and fraud.</p><p>
</p><p>As of 31 July 2022, the total number of investigations opened since the start
of the schemes is over 45,000, of which <em>c.</em>31,000 have been concluded. The
taskforce opened over 32,000 one to one investigations in addition to the c<em>.</em>13,000
one to one investigations opened prior to the taskforce being formed. These investigations
are carried out using HMRC’s civil powers and do not involve prosecution. By 31 March
2022, HMRC have recovered around £762 million of overclaimed grants. This is in addition
to £425 million prevented from being paid out incorrectly and £970 million returned
by claimants because they did not need the grant or they identified they had overclaimed
without HMRC taking action.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, HMRC carries out criminal investigations
in the most serious cases of fraud. As of 31 July 2022, there has been 1 successful
prosecution for fraud on the HMRC administered COVID-19 support schemes. HMRC also
has 30 active criminal investigations that involve suspected COVID-19 scheme fraud
and the final decision on whether to prosecute in these cases will be made by independent
prosecution partners.</p>
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