Just 1% of the estimated £1.1billion of taxpayers’ money lost to fraudulent or incorrect grants paid to allegedly struggling businesses during the pandemic has been recovered, a Whitehall spending watchdog reveals.
The “overwhelming majority” of losses happened in the early stages of the crisis when the Covid-19 business grant scheme did not require pre-payment checks for businesses, it finds.
Yet by mid-February 2023 the new Department for Business and Trade has still only clawed back £11.4million, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report published today.
