HM Revenue and Customs has apologised after suspending child benefit payments for 23,500 families based on incomplete travel data. The error came to light after reports that hundreds of families in Northern Ireland had their benefits stopped when they returned home via Dublin airport, leading HMRC to believe they had taken a one-way ticket out of the country.
Among those affected are a music teacher who took her three children on a day trip to Amsterdam from Liverpool to familiarise her autistic sons with flying, and a woman who went to France for five days after her husband died there. Others include a Lithuanian man who has lived in England for 24 years and was flagged after a five-day holiday to Italy, and a family from Hove whose benefit was stopped after a trip to Australia through Gatwick.
HMRC admitted it had sent letters to less than 0.5% of the 6.9m claimants with payments suspended while inquiries continued. It said it expected the majority had been suspended correctly but was urgently reviewing the process. Victims have expressed fury at having to provide extensive evidence, such as bank statements and school records, to prove they still live in the UK.
Cerys, the music teacher, said: 'Child benefit are now saying that there is no evidence of me returning with my family so I need to produce a ridiculous amount of evidence to prove that I have not been living in Amsterdam since February.' Simon Pilbrow in Northern Ireland, whose benefit was stopped after a trip to Vienna, described the situation as 'Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare'.
Mark Blackmore, whose benefit was stopped after a holiday to Spain, sent HMRC an invoice for wasting his time. Matt and Judy, guardians of two autistic boys, had their benefits stopped after a trip to France via different routes, despite having passport stamps proving the holiday. HMRC is now actively considering options to improve the system.
