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Simon Pilbrow and his children on holiday. Photo courtesy of Simon Pilbrow
Parents in England have joined hundreds in Northern Ireland whose Child Benefit payments were mistakenly suspended as part of the UK government’s crackdown on alleged benefit fraud.
A new system comparing HMRC Child Benefit records with Home Office international travel data has failed to correctly record parents returning from short trips abroad.
British citizens and dual nationals are among those wrongly flagged as having left the country.
HMRC said it is “urgently reviewing” its processes and apologised to families affected.
Tens of thousands of letters have already been sent to households across the UK.
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, earlier this month he received a letter saying HMRC had no record of his return and had stopped his Child Benefit.
He was asked to complete a 12-page form demanding three months of bank statements, letters from his child’s school, and hospital records.
He said it was a “bureaucratic nightmare.”
“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."
Mr Pilbrow explained that a check on his PAYE records would show that he was living in the UK.
He has asked to speak to a manager and hopes the issue can be resolved without filling in the 70-question form.
"I'm not going to go around and get lots and lots of documents, just because the department made a mistake."
Simon and other families appear to have been caught by a new HMRC system using incomplete airport and ferry data, which wrongly flags UK residents as having emigrated.
Crackdown
James Willis, 49, an electrical engineer from Devon, had his Child Benefit stopped for his two-year-old son earlier this month after a brief trip to Ireland for his sister’s funeral.
It was difficult to be forced to think back to that difficult time, and have to dig out the boarding passes, he said. “I don’t really need reminding of that time. That’s another insensitive part of all this.”
When he called HMRC, he was told it could take up to ten weeks to reinstate payments once they received his documentation - meaning he could be without Child Benefit for almost three months.
“I expected a human reply: ‘This is obviously a mistake, it’s clear you are in the UK, we can see from other HMRC records that you are working.’”
He said it had been difficult to get the required documents, especially given his son’s age.
“They want GP records and hospital appointments. He hasn't been unwell and we’ve had no reason to go to the doctor since then (January). I feel bad wasting the GP's time getting a pointless letter.
“There are people who are surviving on those benefits. To take them away for the best part of three months, leading up to Christmas, is ridiculous.”
“I want to know what the story is - why have they done this? It has obviously backfired and caught a lot of other people in it.”
The UK government launched the crackdown in August, claiming it could save £350 million in benefit fraud.
At the weekend, it emerged that about 350 families in Northern Ireland had been wrongly caught up in the crackdown. The new cases suggest the problem is nationwide.
HMRC letter warning parents in Belfast their child benefit would be stopped
Travel data
Michael Boylan, who went to France for Easter with his wife and daughter, said his family was also affected. They flew from London but returned by ferry.
"When you come back through the ferry you still spend an hour queuing up, your passports are scanned and connected to every passenger in the car."
Illustrating the lack of complete travel data that the government holds, he said that his family have been out of the country several times since April - including a summer holiday to France by ferry - and that his wife had also flown for work.
"We rang (HMRC) and expected for them to say 'Oh, there has been a mistake'
"They put some very high hurdles in front of us. The one we won't be able to deal with is getting a letter from the GP. They are just so overworked and overwhelmed, it's just not going to happen.
He said they spent a whole day printing out bank statements and arranging for other support documents, such as a letter from the school.
"My wife is French – she went through the citizenship application a few years ago. Honestly, they are asking for more information now.
Mr Boylan said he intends to write to his local MP, Keir Starmer, for support.
"Hopefully they get their act in gear, because we don't want to go through this every time we leave the country."
HMRC said it was “urgently reviewing” the situation.
However families who have done nothing wrong are still expected to complete the 12-page form and provide various pieces of supporting evidence.
HMRC said it would now check PAYE records before suspending payments going forward – but this will not affect the thousands of families who have already had their benefits stopped.
Child Benefit is paid to 6.9 million families in the UK. HMRC said around 0.5%, or 34,000 families, have received letters stopping their payments.
"While this affects a very small number of Child Benefit claimants we are very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly,” an HMRC spokesperson said.
“They should respond to us as soon as possible so we can check their case, reinstate payments, and ensure no one is left out of pocket.
“We are urgently reviewing the current process and are actively considering options. We've already taken swift action to amend our approach, including checking employment data first before suspending payments.”
Have you had benefits stopped after travelling abroad? Contact [email protected]