The tax authority is writing to a ‘small’ number of taxpayers who have amended their self assessment return for the 2016-19 tax years which has caused one of their SEISS grants, paid to support them during the Covid-19 pandemic, to be too high and that they need to pay some or all of it back.

According to official data, up to 28 October 2021, £28.1bn had been paid in SEISS grants in total, and across the five grants, 2.9m individuals have received at least one with 10.4m grants having been claimed. Of the 2.9m individuals that claimed at least one grant, 1m individuals claimed all five grants. 1.6m individuals claimed each of the first four grants.

HMRC predicts that within the first three phases of the SEISS grant, the level of fraud sat at 2.5% which is the lowest of all the Covid-19 financial support schemes with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Eat out to help out (EOHO) both sitting at a predicted fraud level of 8%.