The Government is stepping up efforts to tackle child benefit abuse by people living overseas and continuing to claim when they are no longer eligible.
A pilot scheme run over the past year by HMRC, the Public Sector Fraud Authority and the Home Office has already shown strong results. By comparing 200,000 child benefit records with international travel data, investigators identified thousands of ineligible claims. In total, £17 million in fraudulent or erroneous payments was prevented, with just 15 investigators involved, each halting more than £1m in claims.
So far, 2,600 people have been removed from the system after leaving the UK but failing to notify HMRC that they had moved abroad.
Following this success, the Government will now expand the programme, hiring 200 additional staff for a specialist team dedicated to targeting overseas abuse. The new unit is expected to stop £350m in fraudulent payments.
Under current rules, child benefit may stop if a claimant spends more than eight weeks outside the UK, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Families are required to inform HMRC of any extended stays abroad.
Alongside tougher enforcement, HMRC has confirmed renewed efforts to raise awareness of the rules, recognising that some errors stem from genuine mistakes. Every flagged case will continue to be reviewed by a human investigator, and HMRC will contact families directly to resolve issues quickly.
In 2024/25, child benefit cost £13.3 billion, supporting 6.9m families and 11.9m children.
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