that, to date, HMRC has paid out over £35.4 billion through the CJRS which has supported 1.2 million organisations, and 9.6 million furloughed employees.
Mr. Harra said:
“We have made an assumption for the purposes of our planning that the error and fraud rate in this scheme could be between 5% and 10%. That will range from deliberate fraud through to error.”
This is not the first case of arrests being made in connection with suspected furlough fraud. Back in July 2020, arrests were made in the West Midlands in relation to a suspected £495,000 fraud.
HMRC has already started writing letters to approximately 3,000 businesses per week, who are believed to have made claims for too much money through the scheme. This is based on information that HMRC has access to on those businesses.
CIPP comment
There has been much focus on the accuracy of CJRS claims, and businesses have been made aware that if they have made an error, any excess money received must be notified and returned to HMRC. This can be done as part of a company’s subsequent online claim or by contacting HMRC directly. Any businesses wishing to claim the Job Retention Bonus (JRB) will need to ensure that their CJRS claims have been accurately submitted and that HMRC has been advised of any amendments, where applicable.
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Bank of England governor advises the government to amend its plans for the CJRS 24 September 2020
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England has urged the government to “stop and rethink” how it ends the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), which is due to close at the end of October 2020.
Whilst speaking on a webinar, he suggested that there are certain sectors that will require additional help, as some firms will struggle to carry on employing staff when the scheme ends, leading to a sharp increase in unemployment. This contrasts with his statement back in August, when he confirmed that he backed the ending of the scheme, indicating that workers should be helped to move on, as opposed to remaining in unproductive jobs. However, he has now shown that he is receptive to further intervention by the government to help protect employment.
The BBC reported that Mr. Bailey had said that the CJRS “has been successful”. He also stated:
"We have moved from a world of generalised employment protections, to specific and focused areas.
[Furlough] has helped manage the shock, to firms and to labour [but now] the use of it, as far as we can tell, is more concentrated.
I think it is therefore sensible to stop and rethink the approach going forward, without any commitment to what that might be."
It is thought that approximately 30% of private sector employers were making use of the CJRS at the peak of the pandemic, but now the heaviest reliance on it is in industries including hospitality, retail and culture.
Mr. Bailey’s comments were made a mere matter of hours prior to prime minister, Boris Johnson, announcing new restrictions in England, implemented to attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, as it is feared that a ‘second wave’ is incoming.
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The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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