Financial support for businesses during coronavirus (COVID-19), fraud and error.

Frank Zola made this Freedom of Information request to HM Revenue and Customs

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The request was partially successful.

Frank Zola
Delivered

Dear HM Revenue and Customs,

During the Covid19 pandemic, financial support was provided to businesses outlined at https://www.gov.uk/government/collection.... At present, how many cases of financial support is HMRC checking for fraud and error? Since such checking started how many staff are doing these checks? Plus, to date, how many cases of fraud and error have been detected and how much money is forecasted to include detention of fraud and error?

During such checking and actions taken thereafter how does HMRC distinguish between fraud and error and what legislation and guidance does it rely upon to define actual cases of [1] Fraud and or [2] Error?

Yours faithfully,

Frank Zola

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FOI Central Team, HM Revenue and Customs

Our ref: FOI2021/24942

Dear Mr Zola,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Acknowledgement

Thank you for your communication of 19 October.

We have allocated the above reference which you should quote if you need
to contact us.

We will arrange for a reply to be sent to you which will either comply
with our obligations under Freedom of Information Act or, if we think it's
an enquiry that we don't need to address under the terms of the Act, let
you know why. If it is the latter we will, if possible, pass it on to a
more appropriate part of the Department for answer.

While we aim to respond to all freedom of information requests within 20
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we will, where possible, write to you explaining the reason for the delay
and provide an estimated time for response.

Yours sincerely

HMRC Freedom of Information Team

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FOI Central Team, HM Revenue and Customs

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Zola,

We are writing in response to your request for information, received 19
October.

Yours sincerely,

HMRC Freedom of Information Team

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J Roberts left an annotation ()

COVID-19 business grant schemes - National Audit Office

Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury
24 MARCH 2023

'4,529,000 number of grant payments made via the schemes to businesses in the period March 2020 to March 2022

£1.1 billion estimated losses occurring as a result of error and fraud in business grant schemes, 2020-21 and 2021-22 (just under 5% of the value of grants paid to businesses)

£11.4 million of losses recovered by mid-February 2023 (around 1% of
estimated losses) '

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/upload...

Error and fraud in the COVID-19 schemes: methodology and approach (an update for 2022)

Updated 18 July 2022

'Detailed findings on the nature of error and fraud

For the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, new data means that we now attribute a larger proportion of the error and fraud to error than we previously published...'

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

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