Inquiry launched into HMRC anti-fraud scheme that wrongly cut child benefits

"The inquiry follows a series of articles in the Detail and the Guardian which exposed how HMRC relied on faulty travel data which recorded outgoing journeys, including airline bookings that were never used, and frequently failed to record return journeys by holidaymakers and business travellers. HMRC took the data in good faith from the Home Office and ended up incorrectly suggesting that families had emigrated and were fraudulently claiming the support from abroad."

"Among those who hadn't even flown abroad but were stripped of child benefit was a woman who did not board the plane after her child had an epileptic seizure at the departure gate, and another woman who did not travel to Norway after the wedding she was planning to attend was cancelled. Some people in Northern Ireland had their benefits stripped after returning via Dublin airport, while others simply had their child benefit frozen because the Home Office had no record of their return to the UK."

"HMRC suspended payments for 23,794 families between July and October last year in an anti-fraud crackdown. More than 17,000 of those families were found to be legitimate claimants, as of 31 December, while 1,019 (4.3%) were claiming incorrectly. The number of legitimate claimants is expected to rise, with thousands of cases still unresolved."

The National Audit Office launched an investigation into HMRC's controversial anti-fraud scheme targeting child benefit claimants. The scheme relied on faulty Home Office travel data that recorded outgoing journeys but frequently failed to document return journeys, leading to incorrect determinations that families had emigrated. Between July and October, HMRC suspended payments for 23,794 families based on this flawed data. Cases included people who never boarded flights, those returning through alternative airports, and travelers whose returns simply weren't recorded. By December 31, over 17,000 families were confirmed as legitimate claimants, with only 4.3% actually claiming incorrectly. Thousands of cases remain unresolved, with the legitimate claimant number expected to increase significantly.

Read at www.theguardian.com