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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Luke Butterly and Lisa O’Carroll

HMRC anti-fraud scheme that wrongly cut child benefits to resume

Children playing on swings in a park near Ashford, Kent
About 13,800 households were later found to have had their benefits suspended incorrectly. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

A controversial government anti-fraud scheme that incorrectly stripped thousands of parents of their child benefit is to resume, despite ongoing concerns about inaccurate Home Office travel data on which the crackdown is based.

HMRC used flawed Home Office travel records to deduce that thousands of parents who went on holiday or work trips abroad were fraudsters, with 23,800 families having child benefit payments stopped late last year.

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