Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of overpayments under the COVID-19 Voluntary Repayment Scheme have been recovered since 2020.

The COVID-19 Voluntary Repayment Scheme (VRS) was a three-month scheme that ran from 12 September 2025 to 12 December 2025 in which individuals and businesses could repay COVID-19 support money that they were not entitled to, misused or simply did not need.

For Covid Loan Schemes, borrowers were not required to register with the VRS and were instead encouraged to contact their lender directly to make repayments. As a result, repayment activity relating to Covid Loan Schemes is not captured through the VRS and cannot be reported separately. For Covid Business Support Grant Schemes, eight respondents repaid a total of £108,785.29.