Regulation 28 Further information on recovering financial assistance

Before the Secretary of State takes steps to recover on demand all or any part of financial assistance already paid to the agreement holder under a financial assistance scheme in accordance with regulation 11(2)(d) or 24(1)(h), the Secretary of State must notify the agreement holder of the amount to be recovered and the deadline by which the repayment must be made, that deadline being 60 days beginning with the date on which the notification is given.

Where the agreement holder fails to repay the full amount within that period and that person is entitled to further financial assistance under that scheme or any other financial assistance scheme under section 1 of the 2020 Act, the Secretary of State may withhold payments under those schemes to the value of the net amount to be repaid.

Where the agreement holder fails to repay the full amount within that period and that person is not entitled to further financial assistance under that scheme or any other financial assistance scheme under section 1 of the 2020 Act, or the amount withheld under paragraph (2) taken with any repayment made by the agreement holder is lower than the full amount to be repaid, the Secretary of State may recover, as a debt, the net amount to be repaid, together with interest on that amount calculated in accordance with paragraph (4).

Where the Secretary of State exercises the power conferred by paragraph (3), interest may be charged on the net amount to be repaid, for each day from the deadline referred to in paragraph (1) to the date on which repayment of the amount to be recovered and any associated interest is made in full.

The rate of interest applicable on any day is one percentage point above the Bank of England base rate.

In this regulation “the Bank of England base rate” means—