CJRS: HMRC’s powers to recover losses from overclaimed grants

Who would have thought back in March 2020 that the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) would continue until 30 September 2021? At several points this looked highly unlikely but at other times we were waiting to see if additional government restrictions would see its general reintroduction.

The CJRS provided grants to employers so they could retain and continue to pay staff during lockdowns and restrictions put in place to limit the spread of coronavirus by furloughing employees at up to 80% of their wages: 11.7 million employees were furloughed through the scheme at a cost of £70bn.

Recouping losses

HMRC chief Jim Harra recently stated that the government now expects to recoup £2.3bn of CJRS grant money over the coming months less than the initial 5% to 10% estimated error rate or the revised rate of 8.7% in HMRC’s accounts. The obvious question is: why so...