HMRC has paused its child benefit suspension programme after a data error led to 23,500 families being wrongly accused of fraud. The error stemmed from incomplete Home Office travel records, which failed to show that many parents had returned to the UK after trips abroad.
Affected families include a woman who travelled to Amsterdam for work in June 2023, long before her child was conceived. She received a letter from HMRC stating she had never returned from that trip, despite her baby being born in Belfast in October 2024. Another woman had her payments stopped after a week-long holiday to Warsaw in 2023, with HMRC claiming there was no record of her return via Edinburgh airport.
HMRC has now issued a second apology and will no longer suspend payments without first contacting the recipient, giving them a month to confirm eligibility. The agency is also cross-checking Home Office data with its own PAYE records as part of an urgent review. Taxpayers affected are advised to call the dedicated number on the letter they received, and a team will aim to reinstate payments without requiring the 73-question form previously needed.
The issue first came to light after an investigation by the Guardian and the Detail, which found that people returning to Northern Ireland via Dublin airport were flagged as having made one-way flights out of the UK. The problem has since been found to be much wider, affecting families who took holidays in Europe and Australia, as well as those travelling for compassionate reasons.
Paul Kohler, MP for Wimbledon, has written to the Northern Ireland secretary expressing deep concern about HMRC's approach and seeking assurances that the rights of Northern Ireland families will be protected. Some affected individuals have reported feeling discriminated against and unwelcome, despite living and paying taxes in the UK for decades.
