Could 2022 Really be the Year of Crackdown on Bounce Back Loans?

HMRC and The Insolvency Service have had mixed results at best in their ongoing efforts to tackle bounce back loan fraud. Our own investigations into the potential scale of the outstanding debt problem showed that between £6.9 billion and £27.9 billion would go unrecovered.

Last month counter fraud minister Lord Agnew resigned from the House of Lords because of the slow progress in recovering outstanding debts. This was based on a government estimate that expected that 37% or £17 billion of the total loan amount would not be recovered.

They are continuing to pursue many of the directors and businesses who dishonestly obtained bounce back loans. So far The Insolvency Service has overseen 106 director disqualifications, and 48 bankruptcy restriction orders and has wound up 13 companies in the public interest.

Chris Horner, insolvency director with Business Rescue Expert said: “One constant factor we’re continuing to see this year is HMRC’s attitude to businesses trying to dissolve themselves with outstanding bounce back loan debts.

“They are doing everything they can to stop them and worse for directors in this position is that HMRC will use more compensation orders to try and make these directors personally liable for any outstanding debts.

“This is the year when business owners and directors need to get some independent insolvency advice before pursuing any course of action that could bring them to the attention of the authorities.

“There are several ways to close down a business even if it has an outstanding bounce-back loan debt, but they have to be overseen by an insolvency professional.

The best thing any business owner or director can do before taking action is to make the most of their time and explore what options are available to them before choosing one.

One easy and easily accessible way of doing this is arranging a free consultation with one of our expert advisors. After they get a clearer understanding of the situation, they’ll be able to let them know what choices they’ve realistically got and how they can make them work.