A forthcoming report is expected to reveal that Covid-19 support programmes incurred a cost of nearly £11 billion to taxpayers due to fraud and errors.
The Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner, Tom Hayhoe, is anticipated to tell Members of Parliament this week that fraudsters exploited a “golden opportunity,” according to sources at the BBC.
The previous Conservative government’s Covid-era policies encompassed initiatives like furlough wage subsidies, ‘bounce-back’ loans, the Eat Out to Help Out programme, and various one-off grants.
While these measures were credited with bolstering the economy during Covid lockdowns, the rapid deployment of financial support and a perceived lack of robust eligibility checks have drawn criticism, leading to widespread errors and fraudulent activities.
Mr. Hayhoe’s final report, due to be shared with MPs on Tuesday, is expected to unveil the full extent of financial fraud related to Covid-19.
The report is expected to highlight the lack of robust anti-fraud controls in Covid schemes established rapidly by ministers in Boris Johnson’s government, attributing the substantial losses to these shortcomings.
The report will reportedly state that the rushed rollouts involved “accepting a high level of fraud risk, without plans for managing or mitigating this risk.”
Details of the report were initially disclosed by the Sunday Mirror.
In September, the government introduced a voluntary repayment scheme allowing individuals and businesses to return pandemic scheme funds without scrutiny until the end of December.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has tasked Mr. Hayhoe with leveraging his procurement experience as the former chair of an NHS trust to recover public funds lost to fraud and underperforming contracts.
His previous reports revealed that pandemic-era PPE contracts cost British taxpayers £1.4 billion due to undelivered contracts and unusable gowns, masks, and gloves.
To date, HM Treasury has recovered only a small fraction of this amount, amounting to £182 million.
The National Crime Agency is conducting a separate investigation into potential criminal offenses within the PPE procurement system.
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