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MPs are demanding answers from HMRC over a child benefit error in which payments were stopped to 23,500 families as part of an anti-fraud crackdown.
Meg Hillier, a Labour MP and chair of the House of Commons Treasury select committee, has written to the permanent secretary of HMRC asking who made the decisions, why they were made and whether compensation would be offered to the victims.
The letter follows a series of reports by the Guardian and investigative website the Detail on families who had been wrongly suspected of fraud after data showed they had taken flights out of the country but not returned.
They received letters demanding they answer 73 questions and provide a mountain of documentation including bank statements, GP and school records on the back of information the Home Office provided.
But the Home Office data was incomplete and did not record return journeys of parents, leading HMRC to believe the families had emigrated and were continuing to collect child benefit illegally.
One mother told how her child benefit was stopped based on data that showed she had travelled to Italy in July 2023 and never returned.
It transpired that Sally and her three children had checked in for the flight but not boarded after one of the children had an epileptic seizure at the departure gate.
Another woman accused of emigrating and fraudulently claiming child benefit told how she had booked to go to Oslo, but never checked in after the wedding she was invited to was called off.
HMRC has apologised twice and says it has reinstated child benefit to about 2,000 parents so far. It has asked parents who have received the letter to call the number on it, promising swift resolution by a new dedicated customer service team.
It also said it was confident the majority of payments had been correctly suspended.
Hillier wants to know what assurances parents will have that this will not happen again.
“Is anyone who did not board a flight, train or ferry leaving the UK this year at risk of being considered to have emigrated?” she asked.
Addressing many people’s concerns that individuals’ tax records have been tainted, she added: “Will HMRC’s assessment of emigration status affect individuals for the purposes of immigration, or non-domiciled tax status?”
Other questions in the list of 14 demands include how long was HMRC using travel booking data to “establish emigration status”. MPs also want to know why it used booking data, and not boarding data.
They have also asked how HMRC came to determine emigration status when travel operators have no idea who is resident in the UK or not: “Given travel operators do not hold the national insurance numbers of passengers, how did HMRC verify it was halting payments of the correct recipients?”
The committee, which will publish the answers, also wants to know what level of seniority was involved in the signoff of the anti-fraud initiative and what safeguards had been put in place to stop innocent victims being caught up in the crackdown.
This week, several parents told the Guardian they had received a letter from HMRC despite not receiving child benefit for months, or in one case years.
Several complained that they felt they were “being treated like criminals” when they had paid tax all their lives and HMRC could have simply checked tax records to see if they were living and paying tax in the UK.
Another woman, who had previously suffered a stroke, said the letter was very distressing.
“This kind of traumatic situation can cause a severe health breakdown with people like me who already had a minor stroke. Having to deal with providing A to Z information to prove that I haven’t been abroad is a lot of weight on top of tons of stress which is already part of our lives,” said Rachel.
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