Please scroll down the page to find all the latest news and information about the BBL Scheme and the upcoming write-offs, enforcement and recovery action, read and digest everything and in order, as I have laid everything out so you can make sense of the current situation.
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2026 is going to be the year when mass Bounce Back Loan enforcement and recovery action begins, but conversely it is also when large scale BBL write-offs are finally going to kick in, so if you have defaulted on a BBL and did nothing wrong you will be fine.
However, the smallest mistake made when applying for or spending the BBL funds or during the default process and beyond will see you being chased, grilled and asked to or forced to repay every penny or in extreme cases the court system will be used to get you banned as a Company Director, given a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order, end up with a Compensation Order, or like so many other BBL Blaggers, locked up.
Let me start with the good news, that being if you did nothing wrong with a Bounce Back Loan then you have nothing to fear. If however you haven’t defaulted but need to as you are currently struggling to repay a legitimate BBL, then make sure you follow the rules when defaulting, as additional options will be made available to you:
Plenty of people have taken my advice over the last 5+ years and have already set up repayment plans or agreed and paid a settlement figure, and are now managing their massively reduced BBL repayments or have paid it off at a much reduced amount, or haven’t paid anything back as their business was unable to and will not face any problems or enforcement/repayment demands moving forward, as they played by the rules.
Let’s now move onto what is coming in 2026. For years now the Government have been working out who did what when it came to Bounce Back Loans, including, data matching exercises and checking who Lenders have already flagged up as suspected BBL Blaggers. They now have a rather long “naughty list”, that being a list of people they are going to be actively chasing as part of their recovery and enforcement action from 2026. This is how they worked everything out:
As the BBL Naughty List is rather large, it was decided to launch a scheme to scare and nudge people to repay a dodgy BBL they got, or at least get people to set up a repayment plan, the initial aim was to give people the peace of mind of knowing that by making use of the scheme they wouldn’t face any enforcement action for their BBL wrongdoing. As such on September the 12th 2025 the Voluntary Repayment Scheme was launched.
Sadly due to all manner of legal reasons which saw many banks refusing to touch the scheme with a 12 foot barge pole, the Government had to chop and change the rules and aim of the scheme, and diluted it so much it became a scheme offering nothing. As you will discover in my reports uncovering that saga below, the scheme closes on 31st Dec 2025:
Below is the final report and recommendations of Tom Hayhoe, the Covid Corruption Fraud Commissioner (who left his post on December the 2nd). Please do read his report as it will give you a good idea of what is coming by way of write-offs and both enforcement and recovery action from 2026.
He has, for the 180,000+ of you with a Strike Off blocked due to an unpaid BBL, put forward a recommendation, which will allow many of those Companies, whose Directors did nothing wrong, other than not making it through the pandemic to be dissolved, with the BBL being written off, which is based on the solution I gave him in one of my meetings with him, and funding has been allocated to make it live as soon as possible.
Moving into 2026, the new Public Authorities Fraud Investigation and Enforcement Service are going to be using some imaginative initiatives to bring to justice anyone they know committed any type BBL wrongdoing that their data-sharing exercises have uncovered, using operational efficiencies for trial by the Insolvency Service.
Such as Directors who have pulled any stunts with their LTD Company or not paid their taxes etc this will be achieved by the Insolvency Service using the “stunts pulled” or “non payment of taxes” as an excuse and an indirect way to get the BBL wrongdoing brought to light and punished by applying to the High Court for a winding up order and then seeking compensation orders in favour of the company’s creditors against any Director who ultimately is disqualified for BBL related wrongdoing, which is fully uncovered and confirmed during liquidation. Here are some very recent real life examples:
Other initiatives will include action against those who over-egged their turnover to get a Bounce Back Loan and those who misused the funds. Those initiatives will operate on a ‘test and learn’ basis: gathering data to discover how best to reclaim BBL funds. The over-egging of turnover to get a BBL and the misuse of BBL funds is much higher than initial official Government estimates suggested and has been confirmed due to enhanced data sharing and A.I. analysis exercises.
However, Lenders have lobbed a huge legal spanner into the Governments aim of recovery action on Bounce Back Loans. The Commissioners report ever so slightly hints at that in a roundabout fashion, when he states “the loans are ‘owned’ by the commercial lenders” so 2026 will be an interesting time for all concerned….
The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 which became law in December 2025 is currently going through its “Public Consultation” stage regarding a “Code of Practice” for the terrifying Civil Penalties Powers aspect of that Act including banning people from driving, dipping their bank accounts etc, based on the Minister for the Cabinet Office being satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that someone committed fraud.
That is due to be completed on 27th Feb 2026, and then within 12 weeks from that date the Government will respond. As such, there will be no Government instigated enforcement action using that law, until it introduces its Code of Practice as per those dates and schedule.
Due to Lenders acting weird recently, for example refusing to take part in the BBL Voluntary Repayment Scheme and other irregularities, that I am monitoring, there are now serious legal questions to be answered as to whether these new Government powers will or will not be used against some or even all BBL blaggers.
If not, then it will be left to the Insolvency Service in conjunction with HMRC, Companies House and the Public Sector Fraud Authority to go it alone and look for non-BBL related wrongdoing committed by, for example, LTD Company Directors, and go after that, which will then allow for the actual BBL wrongdoing to be investigated and then punished.
One of the problems is hidden in the BBL Guarantee Agreement above, that states: “Save as many be expressly agreed between them from time to time, neither the Lender or Guarantor will, as a result of the participation in the Scheme, (i) be (or have the authority to act as) agent for the other or (ii) be (or be treated as being) in a fiduciary relationship to the other.” Some Lenders do not want to do anything to put at risk their BBL Guarantee, and as such do not want the Government acting on their behalf as BBL debt collectors or BBL enforcement officers.
Most weekdays, people get banned from being a Director of a Company, or Sole Traders and individuals get Bankruptcy Restrictions Orders for BBL related mischief, some people find themselves before a court and ultimately locked up for BBL fraud, and in most cases it is their own actions that have seen them being punished.
Conversely some people get compensated or their BBLs written-off or reduced in value when complaining about unfair treatment by Lenders or due to irregularities with their Bounce Back Loan, here are the latest outcomes of people in those three categories:
As you will see by the cases below, they are banning people for over-estimating their estimated turnover when those people were allowed to estimate their turnover. Many people in such a position fail to provide proof of how they arrived at their estimated turnover figure and some also fail to explain where the BBL funds went, often taking the ban offered to them rather than face court action. So make sure you have records and defend your actions, should you found yourself in a similar position.
The deal that they get offered is often just a reduced length of ban if they sign an undertaking, or if they refuse, they get taken to court and face a longer ban and often get slapped with a compensation order for the full amount of the BBL. So you can see why some people, often mentally beaten and battered down into submission by the Insolvency Service, simply agree to a ban.
Whilst the Voluntary Repayment Scheme was up and running, the Public Sector Fraud Authority tested out a pilot by writing to a modest number of BBL blaggers, telling them we know what you have done, now here are your options.
Below you will find more information on that pilot and a copy of the letters they sent out along with details of just how successful a very early pilot of the upcoming enforcement action went on.
It’s not just Government Departments that have been and are set to wind up even more Ltd Companies in the High Court when they know the Director(s) blagged one or more Bounce Back Loan or pulled some other stunts like over-egging their turnover to get a BBL or even used the BBL funds like a lottery win, some Lenders have also been doing so quietly in the background for quite some time, usually when they have had their BBL Guarantees yanked.
Whilst it can take ages for the Judge appointed Insolvency Practitioners to investigate and discover what went on and officially report any and all actual BBL wrongdoing, several cases have now finally worked their way through the system and have resulted in punishments being handed out just the other day to the respective BBL blagging Directors:
The helpline will be open over the Christmas and New Year Period as it is every day of the week. If you or anyone you know is in a bad place, worrying about an unaffordable BBL or any Bounce Back Loan related worries or concerns, give them my number and get them to give me a bell. If you are in a position to help me be there for everyone, please consider making a donation or if you haven’t yet done so, please subscribe to the website, I can only be here morning, noon and night with your support.
Have a fabulous Christmas and a great New Year, but please, do not be afraid of calling me over the festive period, as I am here for you, as I have always been if you are in a dark and lonely place and need a chat. – Mike
Duncan Beach, previously the Managing Director, Global Head of Risk & Compliance Transformation at HSBC during the time the bank kept quiet about bugs, defects and errors in their BBL application platform, and the bank that has been ordered to remove unfair BBL related CIFAS fraud markers from business owners and the bank that didn’t implement the duplicate database causing 1,000’s of duplicate BBLs to be issued by multiple other Lenders has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the Insolvency Service and is due to start in January. Quite remarkable!
Talking of HSBC, a Company with links to Sarah Ferguson the ex-Duchess of York which had a Bounce Back Loan is now in Administration, fortunately the amount not paid back and due to be picked up by taxpayers isn’t as big as the defaulted taxpayer backed loan Carole Middleton the mother of Catherine, the Princess of Wales left unpaid.
It is of course due to the number of people who took the biscuit with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme such as the random ones featured in the articles below, that rattled Rachel Reeves, who before the election promised she would take on a Covid Corruption Fraud Commissioner and seek his guidance on how to go after anyone and everyone who blagged a BBL in one way or another.
Once the Voluntary Repayment Scheme ends on the 31st of December 2025, the Cabinet Office, Public Sector Fraud Authority, Insolvency Service and others are going to set about chasing and trying to bring to justice everyone who has blagged a Bounce Back Loan.
They will be aided in such due to the new Directors I.D. Verification Scheme launched by Companies House and the passing into law of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill. Below are some more recent articles that I have compiled that you may find of use.
The latest Bounce Back Loan data dump came my way today, the 28th of November 2025, which reveals that to date a total of £11,417,650,000 has been paid out to Lenders via the Government Guarantee with another £221,660,000 waiting to be paid out and some £170,760,000 in Guarantee claims waiting to be put in. To date, 67,448 BBLs are in arrears and 433,115 are now in default.
Bugs, Errors and Defects on BBL Lender platforms/software has seen them having their Guarantees yanked on some 14,063 BBLs worth a mind-blowing £497.84million, it’s similar to Post Office Horizon scandal as many people could have been convicted due to those often unreported bugs, defects and errors, (some possibly have been) but spotted them and have managed to have their BBL’s written off by noticing them and complaining.
If you are interested, in the latter part of 2025, namely December, the Covid Inquiry turned its attention to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, quizzing those involved on its many failures. Below you will find the “best bits”, which are things I have been reporting on for many years, but it’s nice to finally see those responsible for the never ending cock-ups answering questions and/or trying to cover their backsides.
