The UK's tax authority has been ordered to launch an immediate investigation after thousands of families were stripped of essential Child Benefit payments due to unreliable government data.
MP Demands Transparent Action
Conservative MP Andrew Snowden has called on the Labour government to "immediately take action" to address what he describes as fundamental failures in the anti-fraud benefits crackdown. The Member of Parliament for Fylde, who also serves as his party's assistant whip, stated that the government must provide "immediate and transparent action" to resolve the situation affecting vulnerable families across the country.
"Thousands of families have had essential child benefit payments wrongly suspended because of unreliable or incomplete data," Snowden revealed. He emphasised that these are not minor administrative errors but serious failures that directly impact household stability.
Scale of the Problem
Recent reports have uncovered that HMRC suspended child benefit payments for 23,500 families based on erroneous Home Office travel data. The flawed system recorded when individuals left the UK but failed to properly document their return, creating false impressions of prolonged absences that triggered automatic benefit suspensions.
"Child benefit provides vital support and, for many households, it is the difference between managing and falling into hardship," Snowden explained. He highlighted the real-world consequences: "For low-income households, even a short suspension can cause severe hardship – missed rent, debt or reliance on food banks."
Calls for Independent Review
The Conservative MP has demanded a full, independent review of how the system was authorised and how such unreliable data was permitted to make critical decisions about family benefits. He insists that the findings must be published in their entirety to ensure transparency and prevent future occurrences.
John Vine, a former chief inspector of borders and immigration, expressed serious concerns about the border recording system. "It worries me that we've got a system that is supposed to be recording when people come back into the country or have left the country... that should be fairly accurate," he stated.
Vine suggested that the problem might extend beyond benefit administration, indicating that the entry and exit checking system at the Home Office may not be functioning properly or could be experiencing significant recording delays.
Privacy campaigners have identified the situation as a classic case of "function creep." Sana Farrukh of Privacy International explained: "It is something Privacy International has warned about, function creep and mission creep. Where it starts out with 'this will only apply in minimal cases, or we are going to use it for a clearly demarcated purpose', but over the years it expands."
The home secretary now faces pressure to direct the chief inspector of borders and immigration to examine the border recording system as a matter of urgency, while affected families continue to struggle with the financial consequences of the flawed data.
