Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many child benefit claims were cancelled because the claimant was found to be living abroad in each year since 2020.

From administrative data, the number of Child Benefit awards terminated by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) through compliance activity per year, due to customers no longer meeting the Child Benefit residency criteria is provided below: ·

- 2020-21 = 113 awards

- 2021-22 = 269 awards

- 2022-23 = 762 awards

- 2023-24 = 1,030 awards

- 2024-25 = 3,017 awards

The increase in terminated awards over this period has resulted from incremental improvements in HMRC’s utilisation of available data sources. In 2024-25 a proof of concept used Home Office travel data as a risk indicator for when customers may no longer satisfy Child Benefit residence criteria. Following the success of this exercise, the government announced at Autumn Budget 24 investment in an additional 180 welfare counter fraud staff in HMRC to tackle fraud and error in Child Benefit. This is expected to save £350 million over the next five years.