Chancellor John Healey is under fire after the Treasury made a remarkable admission
John Healey blasted as taxman admits it has no clue how much child benefit goes abroad (Image: Getty)
Labour has been told to come clean over how much child benefit is being shipped abroad, after the tax office admitted to not even keeping count. Treasury bosses confirmed they don’t produce figures on how much cash is paid to people who have left the country.
The admission came as HMRC revealed some £270million in child benefit was wrongly claimed last year alone, with claimants shipping out thought to be a leading cause. Furious Tories said hard-pressed taxpayers deserved to know how much of their cash was being sent overseas.
Asked in Parliament what assessment had been made of those handouts being given to parents who had left the UK, Treasury minister Lord Pitt-Watson replied: “HMRC does not produce statistics on the amount of Child Benefit paid to individuals outside of the UK.”
Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith told the Daily Express: “John Healey has ditched his welfare fraud crackdown, and now, HMRC can’t even tell us how much child benefit is being shipped abroad to claimants who have long since left the country.
“They make taxpayers’ lives miserable whilst not caring about fraud and error in welfare.”
He added: “Whilst Labour have abandoned taxpayers, the Conservatives will save £36 billion from welfare so British taxpayers can keep more of their hard-earned money.”
HMRC insists it is cracking down on the problem.
It has quadrupled the staff checking child benefit claims over five years, and is now using international travel data to spot families who have quietly moved overseas while still pocketing payments.
The taxman says that work has already protected more than £50million, and is forecast to save £285million by 2029-30.
An HMRC spokesperson said: “We take Child Benefit fraud and error seriously, targeting claims where people may no longer be eligible, and have put in place new arrangements to address those who have moved overseas.
“Our work so far has prevented thousands of customers claiming incorrectly, protecting tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.”
But critics say the fact that officials cannot even say how much is being paid out abroad shows the scale of the problem has never been properly gripped.