Child Benefit: Half a million waiting on delayed payment

About half a million people have been left without their Child Benefit payment, after a technical issue at HMRC.

The tax authority said a batch processing issue meant around 30% of Monday’s scheduled payments did not go through and would not be made until Wednesday.

Many parents took to social media to complain about the missing money with some saying they had been left unable to buy food or pay for their child’s bus fare.

HMRC, which administers Child Benefit payments, says that anyone who has incurred a loss can apply for redress.

Since April, parents have been able to claim £25.60 a week for one child and £16.95 for each subsequent child.

People who earn up to £60,000 a year can claim the benefit in full. It is taken away entirely when an individual earns £80,000.

The payments, which are usually made every four weeks, arrive on a Monday or Tuesday.

However, they sometimes show in people’s accounts over the weekend.

Laura, a mum of one from Sussex, told the BBC she had noticed the payment wasn’t there and had been worrying all weekend.

She needs it to pay direct debits for her TV licence and daughters’ school clubs and has had to borrow money from her dad to get to the end of the week.

“I was up at 2:30am this morning checking my bank account – there was no comms from HMRC to warn us or tell us what to do next, it’s been a guessing game.”

People can claim Child Benefit if they are responsible for bringing up a child under 16, or under 20 if they are in approved education or training.

Only one parent receives the payment per child, but there is no limit to how many children you can claim for.

Anyone impacted by the technical problems can submit a complaint online.

Those affected are advised to keep any evidence such as receipts or screenshots to add to their complaint if they want to claim redress.

Susan, a mother of two from Dundee, can’t work as she has a chronic illness. The family rely on child benefit to make ends meet and she fears they won’t be able to afford gas and electricity this week.

“It’s been a really stressful day to be honest with you, making phone calls to HMRC, struggling to get through, being told lines are busy and that there are technical faults,” Susan told the BBC.

“When I did get through after one hour, they said they were not able to offer any information until Tuesday.”

She said waiting until Wednesday for the money was “not good enough” and she may have to turn to friends and family for help.

“The stress has left me in tears,” she said.

Danielle, a mum from London, tweeted: “In 14 years, I’ve never had a problem getting my CB on time. I was very surprised by this issue. Hopefully, it’ll be rectified quickly. I feel for anyone who was relying on this money this morning.”

HMRC said it was “sorry” for the delayed payments and that it understood “the concern and difficulty this may have caused”.

“We have now fixed the problem and are putting measures in place to prevent this from happening again,” a spokesman said.

“Affected customers will now receive their payments on Wednesday morning. Anyone who has incurred a direct financial loss because of the delayed payment can apply for redress by completing our online complaints form.”

It added that payments scheduled for Tuesday would be made on time.

As of August, there were 6.91 million families receiving Child Benefit payments.