HMRC scheme that wrongly cut child benefits did not ‘adequately consider’ impact, report finds

An HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) anti-fraud crackdown that stripped 23,000 families of their child benefit failed to “adequately consider” the policy’s impact on claimants, an official report has found. The report by the National Audit Office followed HMRC’s decision to suspend payments after flight records provided by the Home Office purportedly showed thousands of parents had emigrated. The initial introduction of the scheme was suspended at the end of last year after an expose by the Guardian and the Belfast investigative website The Detail showed thousands of those parents had simply gone on holiday but the Home Office had no record of their return to the country. It included one parent who was booked to go to a wedding in Norway but the wedding was cancelled, so they didn’t travel. Another was recorded as having emigrated to Italy, but she and her family did not board the plane because a child had a seizure at the departure gate. HMRC apologised twice last year for the botched crackdown and told a House of Commons select committee that 71% of parents targeted were in fact eligible for child benefit. In an initial pilot scheme, HMRC cross-checked flight manifests given to them by the Home Office with pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) data, allowing it to filter out people who were residing in the UK. But when the scheme was first launched those PAYE checks were not included. …