Thousands of parents who went abroad and came back a different route had their child benefit payments mistakenly stopped, HMRC has admitted.
Around 23,500 families who claim child benefit in the UK are believed to have been hit by an error which saw their payments wrongly stopped as part of a crackdown on benefit fraud, according to The Guardian.
HMRC said it had sent letters to around 0.5 per cent of the 6.9m child benefit claimants in the UK with “payments suspended” while inquiries continued.
In one case, a Lithuanian man who has been living in England for 24 years says he was “caught” by the taxman after going on holiday with his son to Italy via Stansted Airport.
Another case involved a woman who flew to Bristol from Belfast, but returned via Dublin Airport.
So, why were their benefits stopped, and what can you do to avoid it happening to you?
HMRC’s benefit fraud crackdown
The blunder by the taxman comes amid a wider crackdown on benefit fraud in a bid to save money, as it looks to plug a roughly £30bn “black hole” in the public purse.
One way it is doing this is by attempting to track people who leave the country and don’t return, but continue to claim benefits.
HMRC has introduced a new system where it compares its records with Home Office international travel data to check how many people have left the country and not returned after 8 weeks.
However, the “flawed” system does not appear to be able to track people who fly in and out of the country via different routes.
This led to thousands of people who returned to Northern Ireland via Dublin being told their benefit payments had stopped, as first reported by The Guardian and NI newspaper The Detail.
The problem stems from the fact that many families routinely fly out of Northern Ireland and return to Dublin airport, as it is cheaper and offers more regular fights, leaving HMRC with the impression they have not returned.
However, it has now come to light this has also impacted people who have travelled in and out of the UK, seemingly for no apparent reason.
One UK resident from Staines-Upon-Thames, who spoke to The Detail, said his family flew in and out of Heathrow and had their child benefit cut by mistake, but have been asked to fill out a 70-question form to get the issue resolved.
Other taxpayers have reported being told it could take up to 10 weeks for their payments to be reinstated and being asked to provide a number of documents first, despite it being HMRC’s mistake.
Child benefit is worth around £26.05 per week for the eldest child, meaning a family waiting 10 weeks could lose out on £260.
If your child benefit is stopped, you need to contact HMRC and ask for a “mandatory consideration” within one month of receiving a letter confirming your payments have been stopped, according to Citizens Advice.
Make sure to provide any documentation HMRC asks for that proves your case, such as proof of the dates you travelled and where you flew in and out of.
HMRC has been contacted for further comment.
Graduates stung after moving abroad
It isn’t just child benefit claimants being affected when travelling abroad.
An investigation by The i Paper has previously found graduates have been hit with a charge of up to £400 per month because they moved abroad and did not provide the correct information to the Student Loans Company (SLC).
Graduates who move abroad do not have their student loan repayments taken from their salary, as those who live in the UK do, and instead must contact the SLC and provide information on their job and salary, or how they are supporting themselves financially.
Those who do not supply the information needed are charged a “default repayment amount”, so they can end up being charged thousands of pounds per year, even if they are making very little and ordinarily would not have to pay back their loan.
Borrowers can reverse the arrears by getting in touch with the SLC and providing the required information.
A spokesperson for the SLC previously said: “Any customer with a student loan balance who is earning over the relevant repayment threshold is required to make repayments, whether they live in the UK or overseas.
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