UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – HMRC halted child benefits for 35,000 families after using incomplete travel data, prompting outrage and urgent reviews of its detection system.
As reported by The Guardian, parents travelling from Liverpool to Amsterdam with autistic children had their child benefits wrongly stopped by HMRC’s benefit suspension.
How did HMRC mistakenly stop child benefits for 35,000 families?
HM Revenue and Customs acknowledged errors affecting hundreds of Northern Ireland families after trips via Dublin airport led the agency to wrongly assume they had permanently left the UK and were committing benefit fraud.
It has sent letters questioning the residency of nearly 35,000 of the 6.9 million child benefit recipients.
The tax authority admitted sending letters to 0.5% of child benefit claimants, temporarily suspending payments, and apologised to affected families, saying most suspensions were likely correct.
It also stated that it was “urgently reviewing the current process and actively considering options.”
Among those whose benefits were frozen were a widow visiting France, a long-term UK resident from Lithuania holidaying in Italy with his son, a family returning from Australia via Gatwick, and a woman attending her grandmother’s funeral in Bristol but returning through Dublin airport.
What did families say about losing the child benefit over travel errors?
Cerys, a music teacher, said, “It feels like you are being punished for travelling.” She took her three children on a one-day trip to Amsterdam to help her two autistic children become familiar with flying, leaving early in the morning and returning the same night to maintain their routine.
She stated,
“Child benefit are now saying that there is no evidence of me returning with my family so I need to produce a ridiculous amount of evidence to prove that I have not been living in Amsterdam since February. We flew out of and back into Liverpool airport the same day.”
Cerys said,
“This is the one time in God knows how many years we have gone abroad. My son is eight now and this was the first time he was abroad, but we lost child benefit because of it.”
She said she initially thought the HMRC letter was a scam and now must provide bank statements, school letters, and GP records to prove her residency.
Cerys is further frustrated that Universal Credit records confirm her UK residency and recent move, yet HMRC did not cross-check this information.
Simon Pilbrow, who lives in Northern Ireland, took a short trip to Vienna with his sons. He recently received a letter from HMRC saying his benefits were being suspended.
He said,
“I called up [HMRC]. I’m normally a pretty chilled person, but I was absolutely raging at having to prove that I live in my own country. Bit of a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare. They said I can’t do anything. I said I work at Tesco, which is the kind of job that you can’t really do working from Austria.”
Mark Blackmore, an events technician, had his benefits stopped after a holiday in Spain three years ago. He spent hours gathering proof of his UK residency and sent HMRC an invoice marked “for wasting my time.”
He added,
“They have certainly got my home address, which is where they sent this letter. And it isn’t in Spain.”
Matt and Judy, grandparents in Durham who care for two autistic boys, were also affected by the HMRC benefit suspensions. Last Easter, they travelled to France, with Matt driving via Newhaven and Dieppe and Judy flying to Newcastle, before returning together by car.
An American with indefinite leave to remain had passport stamps on arrival and departure in France. This confirmed that the trip was a holiday.
Their child’s benefits were stopped on 6 October. They fear this could be the start of cuts to other support for their two boys, aged 11 and 14.
The couple added,
“I can see how somebody’s come up with a good idea: ‘Why don’t we check everyone who’s left the country on a one-way ticket?’ But they haven’t checked whether they come back in or not. This is clearly a fishing expedition based on a half-baked idea. Simple checks would show we always are here unless on holiday.”
What did HMRC say about suspended child benefits?
HMRC stated,
“While this affects a very small number of child benefit claimants, we are very sorry to those whose payments have been suspended incorrectly. 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.”
It added,
“We’ve already taken swift action to amend our approach, including checking employment data first before suspending payments.”
HMRC’s international travel data flagged some claimants as having left the UK and not returned. The system overlooked errors and gaps in border information for many people.
What did the UK government say about the child benefit crackdown?
The British government launched a crackdown in August, saying it could save £350 million in benefit fraud.
The Cabinet Office minister Georgia Gould stated,
“From September we’ll have 10 times as many investigators saving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money.”
The government confirmed that child benefit can be halted, “if a claimant is outside the UK for more than eight weeks.”
What is the child benefit?
Child benefit is a government payment to help parents or guardians with the cost of raising children. For 2025/26, the child benefit is set at £26.05 a week for the eldest or only child, and £17.25 for each additional child, with no limit on claims.
The benefit can be claimed for children under 16, or under 20 if they are in approved education or training.
From September 2025, eligibility was extended to 16–19-year-olds who are home-educated or unable to attend full-time due to illness or disability.
