"When she rang back to say there was no error at her bank, HMRC told her she had taken a flight to Norway and there was no record of her return. I said: What are you talking about?' I then explained that I was supposed to have gone to the wedding but I didn't go in the end and he just said: The records show you didn't come back.'"
"They just said they would send me a new letter and I could respond to that, Morris-Almond said. This is just so ludicrous. I'm angry for everybody who has to go through this ridiculous state of affairs just because it's some sort of glitch in the government system that means they are unable to record who has left and who has returned to the country. Why is it that we have to sort out their mess?"
"A woman who booked a flight from London to Oslo but never checked in or travelled has had her child benefit stopped by the UK government. Tax authorities told her their records showed she had emigrated. Lisa Morris-Almond is one of thousands of people who have had their child benefit frozen as part of a botched crackdown on benefit fraud."
A woman booked a London–Oslo flight for a wedding but did not check in after the event was cancelled. HMRC froze her child benefit after records indicated she had emigrated and recorded a flight to Norway with no return. HMRC records also lacked evidence of her paying UK PAYE tax over the past 18 months. HMRC said it could not comment on individual cases. Around 23,500 people have had child benefit stopped recently under a government crackdown on benefit fraud. The case suggests immigration or passenger records may have been used to flag people as having left the country.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]