MPS have demanded answers from HMRC into a child benefit blunder in which payments to 23,500 families were stopped as part of an anti-fraud crackdown.
Meg Tilernier, a Labor MP and chair of the House of Commons Treasury Selecttee, has written to the permanent secretary of HMRC asking who is talking to the victims.
The letter follows a series of reports by the Guardian and Investigative Website on the details of the families who are in doubt after the data they have revealed to the country but not returned.
They received letters asking them to answer 73 questions and provide a mountain of documentation including bank statements, BANK and SCHOOL records behind the information provided by the office.
But home office data is incomplete and does not record parents’ return journeys, leading HMRC to believe families are migrating and continuing to collect child benefit illegally.
A mother, Sally, told how her son benefited based on data showing that he had traveled to Italy in July 2023 and had not yet returned.
It turned out that Sally and her three children were checked in for the flight but did not board one of the children had an epileptic seizure on the way out of the gate.
Another woman accused of immigrating and fraudulently claiming child benefit told how she had booked in Oslo, but we hadn’t checked after the wedding she was invited to so-called no-call.
HMRC has apologized twice and says it has restored child benefit to around 2,000 parents so far. It asked parents who received the letter to call its phone number, promising a speedy resolution with a new dedicated customer service team.
It is also said to be confident that most of the payments have been properly suspended.
Bernier wants to know what commitments parents have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“Is anyone who hasn’t boarded a flight, train or ferry leaving the UK this year at risk of being considered a migrant?” he asked.
Addressing many of the concerns people have about people’s tax records, he added: “HMRC’s analysis of immigration purposes, or immigration tax not applicable?
Other questions in the list of 14 demands include how long HMRC can use travel booking data to “establish immigration status”. The MP also wants to know why this data is used for booking, and not boarding data.
They also asked how HMRC came to know the immigration status when the sellers of the passengers have no idea, how to vact the passengers in the UK, how to verify those facing the passengers, how to vact the National Onect of Uk, “the prompting of the passengers was given, how to vact the passengers in the UK or not to vact the passengers of payments to the right recipients?”
The committee, which will publish the responses, also wants to know what level of seniority is involved in signing in innocent victims who are being held back.
This week, several parents told the Guardian that they had received a letter from HMRC even after not receiving child benefit for months, or in one case years.
Many complained that they felt they had been “treated like criminals” as they had paid tax all their lives and HMRC could only check tax records to see if they were still alive and paying tax in the UK.
Another woman, who had previously suffered a stroke, said the letter was very upsetting.
“This type of traumatic situation can cause a serious collapse in the health of people like me who have a minor stroke that has a ton of information on our lives,” said Raquel.
An HMRC spokesman said: “We are sorry for the people who were wrongly suspended. We have checked with customers on the first payment, giving them a month to call us or write to us.
“We have a duty to protect taxpayers’ money, but we also listen to our customers and take prompt action to secure claims that are only appropriate.”