Call for inquiry after families stripped of child benefit due to flawed travel data

"Calls are being made for an urgent independent inquiry after thousands of families were stripped of child benefit due to flawed Home Office travel data that claimed to show parents going on holidays and not returning. Andrew Snowden, the Conservative MP for Fylde and the party's assistant whip, said the government must take immediate and transparent action to address the failures of the anti-fraud benefits crackdown. Thousands of families have had essential child benefit payments wrongly suspended because of unreliable or incomplete data, he said."

"He said the findings must be published in full. These are not minor errors. Child benefit provides vital support and, for many households, it is the difference between managing and falling into hardship, he said. It is simply unacceptable that families have been left out of pocket and forced to prove their innocence because of flaws in the government's systems."

"His demands come three weeks after the Guardian and investigative website The Detail revealed HMRC had suspended child benefit of 23,500 families based on erroneous Home Office data, which recorded flights out but not back to the UK. Within weeks of the launch of the crackdown, it emerged that thousands of innocent parents living in Britain had been wrongly flagged as leaving the country as a result."

Thousands of families had child benefit wrongly suspended after Home Office travel data indicated parents had left the country. The data reportedly recorded outbound flights without return journeys, producing unreliable or incomplete records. HMRC suspended benefits for 23,500 families during an anti-fraud crackdown. Andrew Snowden, Conservative MP for Fylde and party assistant whip, demanded an urgent independent review of how the system was authorised and how travel data was used to make benefit decisions, with full publication of findings. The suspensions caused severe hardship for low-income households, including missed rent, increased debt and reliance on food banks, and many families reported distress.

Read at www.theguardian.com