The Government has announced a crackdown on those who continue to claim child benefit payments after leaving the UK.
A specialist team of over 200 people being employed from next month for the scheme that ministers expect will save £350m over the next five years.
Tens of thousands of people being incorrectly paid child benefit while living abroad are expected to have their payments blocked.
The Government will stop people who have left the UK for more than eight weeks from being eligible for payments unless they are found to be in exceptional circumstances.
Child benefit payments are one of the most widely accessed forms of benefits in the UK, with over 6.9 million families receiving payments supporting 11.9 million children as a result.
The rate is currently set at £25.05 per week for the eldest child, with an additional £17.25 for any other children.
The i Paper understands that the new team will use border control data from the Home Office alongside payment figures from HMRC to determine whether claimants have gone overseas.
A pilot of the scheme saw a team of 15 investigators delivering savings of £17m in under a year. Photo: Sean Gladwell via Getty Images.
Individuals who have been recorded as claiming child benefit payments for a particularly long time, as well as those clearly living abroad for an extended period, will be targeted under the crackdown.
Those who have left the UK for any reason, including holidays or business, will continue to be eligible for child benefit payments for up to eight weeks.
Who will still receive payments?
Circumstances such as the death of a family member and medical treatment for a claimant or their family would be considered an exceptional circumstance. In this instance, people would receive child benefit payments for up to 12 weeks while abroad.
Individuals who moved to an EU country, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein before 2021 may also be able to continue receiving child benefit payments if they are employed and liable to keep paying UK National Insurance.
People receiving other benefits such as the state pension or New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance could also continue to receive child benefit payments.
Countries that have a social security agreement with the UK, including Barbados, Canada and the Republic of Ireland, could also see those who have moved there continuing to get payments.
Crown servants are also entitled to continued child benefit payments while working anywhere outside the UK, as long as they were either living in or posted to the UK before being posted abroad.
Data from the Department for Work and Pensions estimated that £6.5bn worth of benefits overpayments were made due to fraud between April 2024 and April 2025, equating to 2.2 per cent of all benefits spending across the year.
The rate of benefit fraud has sharply increased since the Covid pandemic, peaking at approximately 3 per cent of the total benefits expenditure, but figures have slightly fallen in recent years following government intervention.
Cabinet Office Minister Georgia Gould said: “This government is putting a stop to people claiming benefits when they aren’t eligible to do so.
“From September, we’ll have ten times as many investigators saving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money.
“If you’re claiming benefits you’re not entitled to, your time is up.”
£17m saved in trial crackdown
A pilot of the scheme saw 2,600 people being removed from the child benefit system after being found to continue to claim payments since leaving the UK, with a team of 15 investigators delivering savings of £17m in under a year.
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The trial, carried out by the Public Sector Fraud Authority, the Home Office and HMRC, matched a random sample of 200,000 child benefit records with international travel data.
Specialist investigators would then check data which suggested claimants had left the country to determine whether benefits were being claimed incorrectly.
The Government said claims made in error will be recognised as “genuine mistakes”.
A Cabinet Office source said the new scheme does not intend to automatically cut off benefits for any claimants, with every case being reviewed by a human investigator and families being directly contacted to ensure a swift resolution.
Claimants are advised to notify the Government’s Child Benefit Office if they go abroad for more than eight weeks.
Anyone living in the UK who is responsible for a child under 16, or under 20 if they stay in approved education or training, is eligible for child benefit payments.
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