Some parents in Northern Ireland have had their child support payments stopped in error. The fault lies with the UK government’s crackdown on alleged benefit fraud, with parents being penalised simply because they returned from a holiday via Dublin Airport.
So far, 346 families have had their benefits frozen. The discovery was made in an investigation by The Detail, a Northern Irish news site .
The new anti-fraud system is designed to track those who leave the country but do not come back after eight weeks. Failure to return in this time period raises a red flag at HMRC, the UK revenue service, for possible emigration.
This system is problematic in Northern Ireland as many families routinely fly out of Belfast but return via Dublin, which is often cheaper and offers many more flights. It leaves HMRC with the impression a passenger has not returned.
With no passport checks on the Irish Border, the UK government has no data to show a passenger might have driven or taken a bus or train back to Northern Ireland.
Among those whose benefits were stopped is Mark Toal, an NHS nurse in Belfast, and his wife Louise. Along with their two children, they travelled to England for a holiday in 2022 via Dublin Airport. The family took this route because flights were cheaper from Dublin.
On October 10th this year, HMRC wrote to Mr Toal to say his child benefit was stopped. This decision appeared to be based on data that showed Mr Toal’s family had taken a flight from England to Dublin, which was their return journey following the holiday.
“We have information which shows that you left the UK on 15 August 2022 and travelled to Ireland,” the letter said. “This was more than eight weeks ago and we have no record of your return."
Mr Toal said he was shocked to receive the letter. “I was on the phone to them (HMRC) for 45 minutes trying to sort this out,” he said. “I did lose my temper; I was very annoyed. It boiled my blood."
After telling HMRC he had not left the country and continued to live in Northern Ireland, he expected some sympathy. Instead, he was faced with 70 questions, including a demand for boarding passes from three years ago, three months of bank statements and letters from his children’s school along with hospital records.
He was also asked if he was an adoptive or biological parent.
“I pointed out to them that I have been paying tax to the UK government for the past 30 years, I haven’t moved address in 23 years and [I’ve] been working in the same job since 2016,” said Mr Toal.
“Every time I travel from England, Scotland or Wales from Dublin Airport, will I be asked for all this again? Will I have to send them a letter saying ‘please don’t stop my child benefit’?”
Maria, who asked not to go by her real name, received a similar letter from HMRC on October 9th. It followed a short holiday she took to Italy in May, departing from Belfast but returning to Northern Ireland via Dublin.
When Maria got in contact to complain about the error, she was asked to provide proof of being a Northern Irish resident.
“We tried to push back on having to provide all these documents,” she said. “But they said this is not within our remit, you have to send the documentation because that department is very strict.
“I felt exhausted, to be honest. I felt like I was literally in a Kafkaesque process.”
The HMRC move follows a government crackdown launched in August “to save £350 million” on fraudulent benefit claims.
But Northern Irish MPs have accused HMRC of failing to factor in the invisible border with the Republic that requires no passport checks on account of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
“A basic understanding of the North would give them pause,” said Dáire Hughes, Sinn Féin MP for Newry and Armagh, who is representing 14 families whose benefits were frozen. “That would obviously be outside of the gaze of the Home Office.”
Mr Hughes said HMRC move had caused “distress” to “families who have done nothing wrong”. He called the new system “not fit for purpose”.
South Belfast MP Claire Hanna, leader of the SDLP, called on HMRC to reveal where they got their data and why they were using it as a basis of suspicion of fraud. She has used Dublin Airport to return from Westminster when there were no flights to Belfast after late evening votes.
“This is yet another policy that doesn’t seem to have considered the realities of life on the island of Ireland,” she said. “Many families will use Dublin Airport for one or more parts of their journey. Indeed, it is closer than Belfast International for a lot of NI residents.
“We need to have full transparency on what data HMRC are accessing so families do not face loss of this benefit or piles of unnecessary bureaucracy.”
HMRC has apologised for its error but indicated it would continue to do checks. “We’re sorry that a small number of customers in Northern Ireland have mistakenly had their child benefit payments suspended,” it said.
It added that it had “reinstated payments and closed inquires to 134 individuals”.
A further 46 families had payments reinstated while inquiries were pending. A further 166 payments remained suspended with inquiries ongoing, it said. — Guardian
