UK tax authorities believed that withdrawing child benefit payments from parentswithout prior consultation as part of an anti-fraud drive carried a \u201ctolerable\u201d risk, with only a \u201cremote\u201d chance of inflicting harm, according to internal documents.<\/p>\n
The revelations come just weeks after it emerged that at least 63% of those who had their child benefit<\/a> stopped were in fact still living in the UK and had not emigrated, as inferred by incomplete Home Office data used in the crackdown.<\/p>\n Senior HM Revenue and Customs officials are due to be questioned about the episode by the Treasury select committee on Tuesday, which last year said the department appeared to have been \u201ccavalier with people\u2019s finances\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n The controversy began after HMRC suspended almost 24,000 child benefit accounts between July and October. Parents received letters referring to overseas holidays<\/a> \u2013 sometimes dating back as far as three years \u2013 for which the Home Office had no record of a return journey.<\/p>\n By 30 November, almost 15,000 of those families had been confirmed as legitimate claimants, while only 1,019 (4.3%) were found to involve incorrect claims, prompting widespread criticism over HMRC\u2019s use of incomplete Home Office<\/a> data. Thousands of cases remain unresolved, and the number of legitimate claimants is expected to rise further.<\/p>\n Documents released under freedom of information laws show HMRC<\/a> recognised a risk that Home Office data would wrongly flag families as having emigrated, but deemed that risk remote and tolerable.<\/p>\n This was despite evidence from a pilot scheme showing travel data was wrong in 46% of cases. Of those investigated for suspected fraud during the pilot, more than a third were ultimately found to be legitimate claimants.<\/p>\n During the wider rollout, checks against PAYE records were removed to \u201cstreamline\u201d the process \u2013 a decision that contributed to widespread errors, leaving parents suddenly stripped of their benefits.<\/p>\n One woman, whose benefits were stopped, had travelled to France to collect her husband\u2019s remains after his death, but was caught in the HMRC net because the Home Office did not have a record of her return to the UK.<\/p>\n Another parent travelled from Devon to Dublin for his sister\u2019s funeral yet the Home Office had no record of his return journey from Dublin to Bristol.<\/p>\n Officials thought the \u201cseverity of the harm\u201d was \u201cminimal\u201d, despite families reporting considerable stress and missed payments as they scrambled to amass evidence to prove they had not emigrated. They believed errors could be mitigated through the appeals process.<\/p>\n The flaws in the Home Office data were exposed by an investigation<\/a> by the Detail and the Guardian in October, which found thousands of parents across the UK had their benefits suspended simply because Border Force had no record of their return from a holiday or business trip.<\/p>\n Among the dozens of people who contacted the media about the problem was a woman who said her benefit was stopped after she was wrongly recorded as not having<\/a> travelled to Norway for a wedding that was later cancelled.<\/p>\n