UK tax agency apologises after flagging people as having emigrated, often when they return via different routes
Parents who went from Liverpool to Amsterdam with their autistic children are among thousands who have had their child benefit wrongly stopped as part of a crackdown on benefit fraud, it has emerged.
The error by HM Revenue and Customs emerged 48 hours after the Guardian and the Detail reported on hundreds of families in Northern Ireland who had child benefit stopped after they returned home from holiday via Dublin airport, leaving HMRC with the impression they had taken a one-way ticket out of the country and were fraudulently collecting child benefit.
It has now come to light that HMRC sent out letters questioning the residency of almost 35,000 of the 6.9m in receipt of child benefit across the UK.
Also among those whose benefits were frozen are a woman who went to France for five days after her husband died there; a Lithuanian man, living and paying taxes in England for 24 years, who was “caught” after he went on a five-day holiday with his son to Italy via Stansted airport; a family from Hove who flew in and out of Gatwick on a trip to Australia; and a woman who flew to Bristol from Belfast for her grandmother’s funeral but returned via Dublin airport.
HMRC apologised to the families and admitted it had sent letters to 0.5% of the 6.9m claimants with “payments suspended” while inquiries continued. It said it expected “the majority had been suspended correctly”.
…
Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/28/hmrc-cuts-child-benefit-for-35000-families-based-on-incomplete-travel-data