Only 1% of the estimated £1.1 billion of taxpayer cash lost to fraudulent or erroneous grants paid to businesses during the pandemic has been recovered, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said.<br /><br />The former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) initially did not require pre-payment checks when it started the handouts to firms that said they were hit by lockdowns in March 2020.<br /><br />Ninety percent of the losses due to error and fraud arose during that first wave of Covid-19 grant schemes, the National Audit Office (NAO) said in a new report, while checks and improved data reduced the risk in later iterations.<br /><br />Just under 5% of the £22.6 billion distributed to businesses between March 2020 and March 2022 was lost.<br /><br />Only £11.4 million, or 1%, had been clawed back by last month.<br /><br /><br />A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade, recently created after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak split up BEIS, said: “This report confirms that our Covid-19 business grant schemes helped to secure millions of businesses and livelihoods through the pandemic, supporting jobs and the economy during unprecedented times.<br />“No amount of error and fraud is acceptable, and we are continuing to work hard to recover these funds where possible.”
