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<p>The Government has consistently stated that fraud is totally unacceptable. We are
taking action on multiple fronts to recover money lost to error and fraud and, where
necessary, taking legal action against those who have sought to exploit our schemes.</p><p>
</p><p>The Government takes the issue of potential fraud relating to covid support
schemes extremely seriously. Robust measures were put in place to control error and
fraud in the key covid support schemes from their inception. For instance, to minimise
the risk of fraud and error and unverified claims, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
(CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) were designed in a way to
prevent ineligible claims being made up front, and made payments for employees and
businesses using existing data held on HMRC’s systems. That included cut-off dates
around scheme eligibility and the need for customers to be registered for pay-as-you-earn
online or self-assessment.</p><p> </p><p>To further bolster anti-fraud measures, at
the Spring Budget last year, the Government invested more than £100 million in a Taxpayer
Protection Taskforce of more than 1,200 HMRC staff to combat Covid-related fraud.
This Taskforce is expected to recover between £800 million and £1 billion from fraudulent
or incorrect payments during 2021-22 and 2022-23. In addition, HMRC has so far stopped
or recovered £743 million of overclaimed grants in 2020/21.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities
are responsible for ensuring the safe administration of Covid support grants to businesses
and that appropriate measures are put in place to mitigate against the increased risks
of both fraud and payment error. Guidance for the grant schemes requires that local
authorities have assurance plans in place which set out the steps they would take
to minimise fraud. Government has mandated pre-payment checks (company and bank account
searches) as well as post-event assurance, and a Fraud Risk Assessment, as standard
elements of this plan.</p><p> </p><p>Where grants have been paid in error, non-compliantly
or to a fraudster, local authorities must seek to recover these funds and return them
to BEIS. If local authorities have been unable to reclaim the grant, the case may
be referred to BEIS under the Debt Recovery Policy to establish the next steps. Local
Authorities are required to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable and practicable
steps to reclaim incorrectly paid grant funds. 93 cases are currently being triaged
and debts assigned to BEIS for referral to Indesser, a Cabinet Office procured debt
recovery service, to action.</p>
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