Senior officials from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are set to face intense questioning from the Treasury Select Committee this week over a controversial child benefit crackdown that wrongfully targeted thousands of UK families.
'Tolerable' Risk of Harm to Families
Internal documents, released under freedom of information laws, reveal that tax authorities proceeded with a scheme to withdraw child benefit payments without warning, despite acknowledging a risk of incorrectly flagging eligible families. Officials internally assessed the risk of causing harm as "tolerable" and the chance of it occurring as "remote." This assessment was made even after a pilot scheme indicated that travel data was wrong in 46% of cases, with over a third of those investigated for suspected fraud ultimately found to be legitimate claimants.
The flawed initiative, which relied on incomplete Home Office travel data, led to the suspension of almost 24,000 child benefit accounts between July and October. Parents received letters referencing overseas trips—sometimes from years prior—for which Border Force had no record of a return journey.
Widespread Errors and Human Impact
By the end of November, the scale of the error became clear. While only 1,019 (4.3%) cases were confirmed as incorrect claims, almost 15,000 families had been reinstated as legitimate. Thousands of cases remain unresolved, with the number of rightful claimants expected to rise further.
The human cost of the policy has been severe. Families reported considerable stress and financial hardship as they scrambled to provide evidence they had not emigrated. In one harrowing case, a woman who travelled to France to collect her husband's remains after his death was caught in the net because the Home Office lacked a record of her return. Another parent, who travelled from Devon to Dublin for a sister's funeral, similarly had benefits stopped.
Officials reportedly believed the "severity of the harm" was "minimal" and that errors could be corrected through an appeals process. To streamline the wider rollout, checks against PAYE records were removed—a decision that significantly contributed to the wave of errors.
Flawed Data and Poor Oversight
An investigation by the Detail and the Guardian in October exposed the fundamental flaws in the Home Office data. The documents show officials did not adequately raise concerns about the data's reliability, focusing instead on legal processes for data sharing.
Mariano delli Santi, legal and policy officer at Open Rights Group, criticised the process, stating the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was "conducted poorly." The DPIA also concluded there was no need to contact parents before suspending payments.
In response to the scandal, HMRC has introduced new systems. A spokesperson stated the department now cross-checks data and gives customers at least one month to provide evidence of continued UK residency before any payment suspension occurs. "This enables us to tackle error and fraud without asking all child benefit customers to regularly confirm their continued eligibility," the spokesperson said.
The Treasury Select Committee, which last year accused HMRC of being "cavalier with people's finances," will demand answers on Tuesday about why this high-risk strategy was ever deemed acceptable.
