Has your Child Benefit been stopped in error?

In recent weeks HMRC has been criticised for suspending payments of Child Benefit to over 23,000 parents who HMRC, incorrectly assume to have left the UK for more than eight weeks.

What triggered the error?

This has occurred because due to HMRC matching international travel data with records of Child Benefit claimants. If a claimant appears to have been outside the UK for more than eight weeks, their payments may be stopped on the basis that they appear to have stopped being resident in the UK.

This is particularly relevant here in Northern Ireland, where many families fly out via Belfast or other UK airports and return to Northern Ireland through Dublin Airport. The data used by HMRC often failed to record this return journey — so the system flagged the claimant as “left the UK and not returned”.

In Northern Ireland alone, 346 families were identified as having payments suspended in error because of travelling home through Dublin. As well as the suspension of payments, HMRC has also issued extensive demands for proof of continuous UK residence — such as old boarding passes, bank statements, school letters and even hospital records.

What happens now?

HMRC has publicly apologised for the distress caused to claimants who have had their payments wrongly suspended. They have also temporarily paused suspending further Child Benefit payments until they first check employment records and contact the claimant.

In this has affected you or you think it may do in the future, make sure that you keep a record of return journeys, such as boarding passes, particularly if travelling through Dublin airport, until the system is rectified.

If you receive a letter from HMRC saying your Child Benefit has been suspended incorrectly because they think you “left the UK and did not return”, do not ignore it. Contact the number on the letter and provide the requested evidence.