Covid-19 fraud and error cost £11bn

FRAUD and error linked to financial support programmes during the coronavirus pandemic cost taxpayers £10.9billion, a report has found.

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The authors warned that only £1.8bn has been recovered and said “much of the shortfall is now beyond recovery”.

The final report by the Covid counter fraud commissioner, Tom Hayhoe, found that many schemes, including Eat Out To Help Out and Bounce Back Loans, were rolled out quickly with significant risks.

He said that many decisions taken during Covid lockdowns “paid too little attention to the risk of fraud”.

Mr Hayhoe, who was tasked by Chancellor Rachel Reeves with trying to recover the public money lost to fraud, said in his report that controls were “inadequate” and only improved later in the pandemic.