Thousands to lose Child Benefit in DWP fraud crackdown | Personal Finance | Finance
Tens of thousands of families are set to lose Child Benefit under a major government crackdown on people who have moved abroad but continued claiming.
A new specialist fraud-busting team is being rapidly expanded to root out claimants living overseas, in a move expected to save taxpayers £350 million over the next five years.
Officials will use international travel data to identify those no longer eligible for the benefit, which supports almost 12 million children across the UK.
The expansion follows a year-long pilot in which just 15 investigators uncovered £17 million in fraudulent or mistaken payments – and removed 2,600 people who had left the country but kept receiving Child Benefit.
The Government says the success of the trial has prompted the creation of a full-scale unit of more than 200 investigators, beginning work this month.
Cabinet Office Minister Georgia Gould said: “This government is putting a stop to people claiming benefits when they aren’t eligible to do so.
“From September, we’ll have ten times as many investigators saving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money. If you’re claiming benefits you’re not entitled to, your time is up.”
Child Benefit, administered by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), is paid to 6.9 million families and worth up to £25.60 per week for the eldest child. But payments can stop if the recipient has been outside the UK for more than eight weeks, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Under the pilot, the Public Sector Fraud Authority, the Home Office and HMRC matched 200,000 Child Benefit records with international travel data using powers under the Digital Economy Act.
Where the data suggested a claimant had left the country, HMRC investigators carried out checks before deciding whether benefits were being wrongly claimed. The pilot delivered savings of more than £1 million per investigator in under a year.
Officials say the crackdown will not only catch deliberate fraud but also raise awareness of the rules among families who may have made genuine errors. Each case will be reviewed by a human investigator before any payments are stopped.
The DWP said the drive “protects hardworking families who play by the rules” and ensures that “every pound of taxpayer money goes where it should.”
