Furlough Fraud Increases

Employers have been trying to adapt to evolving payroll regulations over the last several months. Making changes to the payroll process each month have led to manual errors as payroll teams and organisations struggle to keep up.

HMRC has recently revealed that there have been fraudulent furlough payroll claims paid in error. Up to £3.5 billion could potentially have been incorrectly paid during the job retention scheme. The rise in fraudulent claims is alarming, but HMRC had planned for 5-20% in fraud prior to the scheme beginning.

Employees must be careful during this time and check monthly payslips to make sure there are no errors. One study by Intuit QuickBooks found that half of the furloughed employees surveyed do not check payslips regularly and had no idea how much tax they owe or how they will be impacted by the furlough scheme. This is concerning as the rise in fraud could also impact employees in the future.

If your company is struggling to manage the evolving payroll regulations and changes to the payroll process each month, talk to us. We can help simplify your payroll with automated updates to payroll requirements, customised reporting, and a CIPP-certified staff to help you ensure you are in compliance with all furlough and payroll-related regulations. Click here to learn more