HMRC to review thousands of suspended payments

The UK tax authority is reviewing decisions to remove child benefit from around 23,500 people who, using travel data, concluded they had left the country permanently.

Normally the benefit ends after eight weeks of living outside the UK, but many affected people have complained that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) withheld their money after they went on holiday for a short period of time.

The move comes after MPs on the Treasury Select Committee demanded a response from the tax office.

HMRC apologized for any errors and said anyone who thought their benefits had been stopped by mistake should contact them.

In September the government launched a crackdown on child benefit fraud that it believes could save £350 million over five years.

The new system allows HMRC records to be compared with the Home Office’s international travel data, which the tax office had used to stop payments to thousands of families.

But following a growing number of complaints from affected people who say they were on holiday and returned to the UK shortly after, all cases are now being investigated.

Eve Craven went to New York for a five-day vacation with her son. He told the BBC’s Kumbara program that about 18 months after the trip he received a letter stating that his son’s child benefit had been stopped.

The letter mentioned his trip to the USA and stated that there was no record of his return.

“It gave me a month to give them all the information requested to prove that I was coming back to the UK,” he said.

“That’s a huge ask for something they messed up, and they should have been able to figure it out themselves.”

Eve’s child benefit was reinstated, retroactive to the date of any missing payments.

The problem was first detected in Northern Ireland; Here some families flew from the UK to Belfast, but then crossed the border back to Dublin in the EU before returning home.

Citizens of the United Kingdom and Ireland can travel freely to each other’s countries under the Common Travel Area arrangement.

There is no routine passport control when crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; This means the UK government has no data to suggest someone may have returned to Northern Ireland.

It’s unclear how many mistakes were made in total or how.

HMRC told Money Box it would review all past cases “using PAYE data and where ongoing UK employment is seen, it will reinstate payments and make any necessary refunds.”

It aims to complete its review by the end of next week.

MPs on the Treasury Select Committee are also currently investigating.

Additional reporting by Nick Edser