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The agency apologised to parents whose payments were suspended incorrectly. Photo by DPP Law, Creative Commons license
HMRC has announced further changes to its controversial crackdown on alleged Child Benefit fraud, following widespread reports of families across the UK having their payments wrongly suspended.
A spokesman said they will now no longer automatically stop payments before first contacting parents. Families flagged by the system will be given a month to confirm that they are still living in the country before any suspension is made.
HMRC apologised to parents whose payments were suspended incorrectly, and said that the current 70-question form would be “streamlined.”
The changes come after reports of hundreds of Northern Irish households, and later families across Britain, were mistakenly targeted by a new data-matching programme that compared Child Benefit records with Home Office travel information.
The system was introduced in August as part of a government drive to “protect taxpayers’ money” and crack down on fraud.
However, the approach wrongly identified UK citizens and residents as having left the country permanently after short trips abroad.
In Northern Ireland, where cross-border travel is common and Dublin Airport serves as the island’s busiest air hub, families found themselves accused of fraud for simply using cheaper flights via the Republic of Ireland.
Maria*, a Belfast-based mother originally from Italy, was among hundreds who received letters from HMRC this month informing her that her Child Benefit had been stopped.
She had flown to Italy for a short break, leaving Belfast but returning through Dublin.
Because there are no UK passport checks on the land border, the Home Office had no record of her return journey to Northern Ireland, and marked her as having moved abroad.
“We have information that shows that you left the UK on 19 May 2025 and travelled to Italy. This was more than eight weeks ago, and we have no record of your return,” the HMRC letter read.
She was asked to fill out a 12-page form including demands for three months of bank statements, letters from her child’s school and hospital records.
“I felt like I was literally in a Kafkaesque process,” said Maria, who asked us not to use her real name.
Many in Northern Ireland regularly use Dublin Airport for cheaper and more frequent flights. A direct bus to Belfast takes under two hours and costs around £10 each way.
“A basic understanding of the north would give them pause,” said Dáire Hughes, Sinn Féin MP for Newry and Armagh, who is representing 14 families whose benefits were frozen.
Similar complaints began surfacing across Britain, reported in The Detail and the Guardian, as Home Office records failed to correctly record parents returning from short trips abroad.
The flawed data led to HMRC suspending 23,489 payments in recent weeks.
Simon Pilbrow and his children on holiday. Photo courtesy of Simon Pilbrow
Simon Pilbrow, from Staines-upon-Thames, took a five-day holiday to Vienna in 2023 with his wife and two children, aged 13 and 16.
Despite flying in and out of Heathrow airport on that trip two years ago, he received a letter earlier this month saying HMRC had no record of his return and had stopped his Child Benefit.
“I’m normally a pretty chilled person, but I was absolutely raging at having to prove that I live in my own country,” he said. “I work at Tesco, which is the kind of job that you can't really do working from Austria.
HMRC said it had reviewed its processes, and will now check claims before suspending any payments, giving parents one month to call them or write back.
They said they are also “streamlining” the information required from families to prove that they are still living in the country, and have set up a team to handle cases of those who believe their benefits were stopped incorrectly.
However families who have done nothing wrong but are incorrectly flagged as having not returned to the country, due to gaps in Home Office data or because they flew back through Dublin airport, will still have to prove their entitlement.
HMRC have said they will now check PAYE records before contacting families, but this will not cover those who are self-employed or on benefits.
"We’re very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly. Anyone affected should call the dedicated number on the letter we’ve sent them so we can confirm their eligibility and reinstate payments," a HRMC spokesman said.
“We will no longer suspend any payments until we have checked with the recipient first, giving them a month to confirm if they are still eligible. This strikes the right balance between protecting taxpayers’ money and ensuring payments are only suspended when appropriate.”
Have you had benefits stopped after travelling abroad? Contact [email protected]