Ministers announce clampdown on UK child benefit claims from overseas

‘If you’re claiming benefits you’re not entitled to, your time is up,’ said Georgia Gould, the MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale in London and a Cabinet Office minister. Photograph: Anna Gordon/The Guardian

Ministers have announced a clampdown on people who continue to claim child benefit payments even though they have moved abroad, in measures that could save the taxpayer £350m over five years.

The government said 2,600 people who had left the UK but still claimed the benefit had already been removed from the welfare system.