HMRC accused of being ‘cavalier’ with finances of child benefit claimants

HMRC made a ‘costly error’ by using faulty data to assess child benefit claims, Meg Hillier says. Photograph: Ascannio/Alamy

HMRC bosses have been accused of being “cavalier” with people’s finances after stripping child benefit from nearly 4,000 parents who were wrongly assumed to have emigrated.

Senior officials are going to be summoned before the Treasury select committee to explain why the benefit fraud crackdown went so awry.