HMRC 'very sorry' as it reviews 23,500 suspended child benefit payments

HMRC has apologised as it launches a review of its decision to strip around 23,500 claimants of child benefit. The UK tax body said it is "very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly" during an anti-fraud crackdown, which used travel data to determine whether claimants had permanently left the country.

HMRC said it has taken immediate action to update the process after questions were raised following worrying reports. It said in August that £17 million in wrongful payments was saved over 12 months under the pilot scheme to tackle fraud and error. However, it is understood officials have since begun working through cases using PAYE data to check how many legitimate claimants have had their benefits stopped after a story emerged that people were incorrectly deemed to have emigrated.

HMRC hopes to complete the review by the end of this week.

Funds will be reinstated and back payments will be made where necessary, if continued UK employment is found.

An HMRC spokesperson apologised and said the process has now been changed, allowing claimants a month to respond before their payments are cut off.

"We're very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly," the spokesperson said.

"We have taken immediate action to update the process, giving customers one month to respond before payments are suspended.

"We remain committed to protecting taxpayers' money and are confident that the majority of suspensions are accurate."

It comes after a group of MPs wrote to HMRC with more than a dozen questions after reports that the authority had been halting child benefit based on travel data from the Home Office.

Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Treasury Select Committee, asked how many people had seen their child benefit payments incorrectly withheld and what safeguards were in place to prevent people who did not board booked flights from being incorrectly deemed to have emigrated.

It is believed HMRC is set to respond to the questions in due course.

Payments for child benefit are typically stopped after eight weeks abroad, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

However, The Guardian reported as many as 46% of families targeted were incorrectly suspected of fraud.

Eve Craven, who had a five-day holiday in New York with her son, said 18 months after the break, she received a letter saying the child benefit had been stopped.

According to the BBC, the letter referenced her trip to New York City, stating that it had no record of her return.

She told the broadcaster's Money Box programme: "It gave me a month basically to give them all the requested information to prove that I'd come back to the UK.

"It's just a very big ask for something that they've messed up on, and they should have been able to sort out themselves."

Her child benefit has now been reinstated, with missing payments backdated.