Businesses repay more than £760m furlough money

A total of 3 777 businesses have voluntarily repaid over £760m in furlough grants to HMRC which they did not need according to UHY Hacker Young.

The firm says it is likely that many of these organisations claimed under the coronavirus job retention scheme in the early stages of the pandemic as a precaution in case they ran into financial difficulties. However many later realised they were not affected as badly as they first anticipated.

It is believed that HMRC is now shifting its focus towards businesses that have incorrectly claimed furlough money which could encourage more to make voluntary repayments to reduce risk. In the March Budget the government said it would be allocating more than £100m towards a new HMRC taskforce dedicated to investigating fraudulent claims under its Covid-19 support schemes.

Neela Chauhan partner at UHY Hacker Young said: ‘Many...