Furlough claim | letters from HMRC causing confusion

HMRC has started sending letters to hundreds of employers, asking them to review their CJRS claims. However, they don’t say which claim, or what they think is wrong with them!

HMRC estimates that 5% – 10% of CJRS grants contain mistakes or have been illegally claimed.

More likely, it is thought that there have been numerous small errors that all add up to a large number (offset to some extent by many that have under-claimed). The rules were fast changing and complicated in many areas, causing accountants and payroll bureaus many headaches along the way.

HMRC has said that it will focus on fraudulent claims and not on cases where the employer has made an innocent error. Its systems have initially highlighted 27,000 CJRS claims where something looks wrong, and it has selected 11,000 of those – hence the generic letters being sent out.

If you receive such a letter, it asks you to respond to HMRC by telephone, if you think the CJRS claim was correct but given the amount of time it can take HMRC to answer phone calls, it would be worth replying by email as well.

Salonfrog clients simply scan a copy of the letter to us and we deal with it.