HM Revenue and Customs has apologised and launched a review after child benefit was wrongly stopped for thousands of families because of incomplete travel data. Letters questioning residency were sent to 23,489 of the 6.9 million claimants across the UK, with payments suspended while inquiries continued.
Among those affected are parents who took their autistic children on a one-day trip from Liverpool to Amsterdam, a woman who spent five days in France after her husband died there, and a Lithuanian man who has paid taxes in England for 24 years. The agency flagged people as having emigrated, often when they returned via different routes, such as flying into Dublin or using another airport.
HMRC said it expected 'the majority had been suspended correctly' but admitted the process had caused distress. It said it was 'urgently reviewing the current process and actively considering options.' The agency has been contacted by families who had benefits frozen despite clear evidence of residence in the UK.
Cerys, a music teacher, took her three children to Amsterdam for the day from Liverpool John Lennon airport to help her two autistic sons familiarise with flying. She lost her £60-a-week payment. 'It does feel like you are being punished for going away,' she said, adding that universal credit records showing she had recently moved house were not cross-checked.
Other cases include a Tesco worker in Northern Ireland who was asked to prove he was not living in Austria, and a theatre technician who sent HMRC an invoice marked 'for wasting my time' after a three-hour evidential exercise. Grandparents in Durham, legal guardians of two autistic boys, also had their benefit stopped after a trip to France at Easter, despite passport stamps proving their return.
