HMRC Accused of 'Cavalier' Approach in Child Benefit Crackdown
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is facing severe criticism for its handling of a recent crackdown that led to thousands of parents having their Child Benefit payments stopped incorrectly. The issue arose after the tax authority used faulty data from the Home Office, which mistakenly suggested these families had left the UK and not returned.
MPs Condemn 'Costly Error' and Lack of Checks
Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the influential parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, stated that while HMRC is right to combat fraud, it has been 'cavalier with people’s finances'. She highlighted that a decision not to cross-check the flawed travel data against tax records was a 'costly error'. This arbitrary removal of necessary checks, she said, has created a mess that HMRC is now forced to clean up.
HMRC chief executive John-Paul Marks revealed in a letter to the Treasury Committee that, up to 31 October, 3,673 out of 23,795 parents wrongly suspected of having emigrated had their eligibility to receive payments confirmed. He acknowledged that the decision to use the Home Office data has impacted service for some customers.
HMRC's Response and Fallout for Families
Marks stated that HMRC has 'taken swift action to resolve the position for affected customers' and has 'strengthened the process and safeguards going forward'. However, the onus is now on taxpayers, as parents are being given a further four weeks to prove they were in the UK.
HMRC explained that it had excluded Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data 'in order to streamline the process', adding that such checks would now form part of any subsequent customer enquiry. Dame Meg Hillier confirmed that the committee will be pressing HMRC on the lessons learned from this mistake when they appear before them in the new year.
