A new HMRC "taskforce" will begin a crackdown on payments made during the Covid crisis. A new HMRC fraud and error taskforce has been established in a bid to claw back overpayments made to UK taxpayers during the Covid pandemic.

The Treasury confirmed: "We have set up the £100m Taxpayer Protection Taskforce of 1,200 HMRC staff to combat fraud, one of the largest and quickest responses to a fraud risk by HMRC. 13,000 one-to-one fraud and error enquiries were opened in 20/21 and HMRC wrote to 75,000 people. We have so far stopped or recovered £743m of overclaimed grants in 20/21.