With losses escalating to £1 billion per week, the extent of this exploitation equates to the “biggest fraud in British history”, David Clarke, Chairman of the COVID-19 Fraud Watch Task Force.
Since the start of the pandemic, the government has forked out in excess of £54 billion towards COVID-19 relief schemes to support businesses and individuals across the UK. Among these Government initiatives include:
- The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) otherwise known as Furlough grants;
- Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS); and
- Eat Out to Help Out Scheme.
With accumulating losses around £1 billion per week due to fraud, David Clarke, Chairman of the COVID-19 Fraud Watch Task Force, asserts that the extent of this exploitation equates to the “biggest fraud in British history”.
Treasury last month announced that they will invest a further £100 million to help the HMRC to combat fraud associated with these COVID-19 relief packages. The HMRC taxpayer protection taskforce, comprising of 1,265 staff will be targeting deliberate offenders and have already opened 10,000 cases.
The HMRC taskforce are cross-referencing millions of claims. Where deliberate behaviour is found, the HMRC is entitled to investigate cases criminally and depending on the severity of the case, fraudsters may receive substantial financial penalties or be prosecuted and receive jail time. This is not the case for those who come forward and self-correct if they have made a mistake in their claim according to the HMRC.
The Furlough Scheme (Corona Virus Job Retention Scheme – CJRS) was initiated to assist businesses to avoid redundancies. The HMRC covers 80% of a furloughed employee wages up to £2500 per month. Among the businesses exploiting this scheme, one company showed an increase in sales and online orders despite their claims of furloughing all its workers and declaring to tax officials they were closed down during lockdown.
‘The taskforce managed to claw back £357,000 from one business which had threatened to dismiss its workers unless they worked through the pandemic, regardless if they were sick, while still claiming furlough support from Government to cover their wages.’
ePayMe are one of the UK’s leading providers of compliant payroll services to contractors, temporary agencies and small businesses. Utilising the latest software we are linked directly to HM Revenue & Customs using RTI (Real Time Information) system, ensuring that pay calculations are always based on the correct tax code and that payroll is fully complaint.
If you are considering moving your payroll to ePayMe and want to learn more about our bespoke services, call us on +44 (0)1252863700 or connect with us an email on info@epayme.co.uk. We are here to help.