HMRC to Review Thousands of Child Benefit payments After Travel Data Errors
London – HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is urgently reviewing thousands of suspended child benefit payments after errors were identified in its new fraud detection system. The review, expected to conclude by the end of next week, follows a surge in complaints from families whose payments were incorrectly stopped after the tax authority began cross-referencing its records with Home Office international travel data.
the crackdown on child benefit fraud,launched in September,aimed to save an estimated £350m over five years. The system flagged individuals whose travel records didn’t show a return to the UK, leading to payment suspensions. However, numerous families have reported being wrongly affected, despite having returned to the country after short trips abroad.
“We’re very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly,” a government spokesperson said. “We have taken immediate action to update the process, giving customers one month to respond before payments are suspended.We remain committed to protecting taxpayers’ money and are confident that the majority of suspensions are accurate.”
The issue was initially highlighted in Northern Ireland, where families travelling from belfast to Dublin – and then returning overland – were especially impacted. The Common Travel Area arrangement between the UK and Ireland allows free movement between the two countries without routine passport checks, leaving HMRC without data confirming their return to Northern Ireland.
Eve Craven, who took a five-day trip to New York with her son 18 months ago, experienced the issue firsthand. She received a letter stating her child benefit had been stopped,citing a lack of record of her return to the UK. “It gave me a month basically to give them all the requested information to prove that I’d come back to the UK,” Craven told the BBC’s Money Box program. “It’s just a very big ask for something that they’ve messed up on, and they should have been able to sort out themselves.” Her child benefit has as been reinstated with back payments.
HMRC has stated it will review all past cases, using PAYE data to verify continued UK employment and reinstate payments with backdated amounts where appropriate. The Treasury Select Commitee has also launched an investigation into the matter.
