HMRC clamping down on furlough fraud by companies in Danger Zone

The latest statistics show that over 11 million workers have been furloughed in the UK as part of the government's job retention scheme (that equates to 16% of the population or one in six people) and 41% of employers had staff furloughed. The scheme has so far cost the government over £40 billion and this figure will continue to rise until the end of September this year when the scheme is set to wind down.

In Berryman v Zurich Australia Ltd [2016] WASC 196 it was decided that a bankrupt's entitlement to claim a TPD benefit under a life insurance policy is not an entitlement that is divisible amongst the bankrupt's creditors, and therefore such an entitlement does not vest in the Official Trustee in bankruptcy. Tottle J of the Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled that the bankrupt insured could continue an action in his own name to recover the TPD benefit. Life insurers may need to adjust their claims' payment practices in light of the Berryman decision.