The government is reporting that it has blocked hundreds of thousands of companies with outstanding or potentially fraudulent Bounce Back Loans from dissolving before they would have to pay anything back. It is reported that they have clawed back millions of pounds from companies that took out Covid loans that they were not entitled to, or took out multiple loans when only entitled to one.

One popular case of Bounce Back Loan Scheme exploitation was a woman who invented a company and then sent the loan money to Poland.

In total, the government is claiming that it has stopped over £480 million from ending up in the pockets of fraudsters over twelve months since April 2024. Over a third of the money saved (£186 million) comes from identifying and recovering fraud committed during the Covid-19 pandemic.