HMRC mistakenly believe I live abroad

[cherrypiesally]

HMRC have sent me a letter telling me they are stopping my child benefit as they believe I moved abroad 18months ago and didn’t return to the UK. I did go away on the date in question and did return and have since been abroad 4 times, (on a renewed passport though). For some reason border control have not recorded it.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did they solve it.
I don’t have the return plane ticket as I was a staff member on a school trip and it was booked through a school trip company so don’t have any emails or credit card receipts of booking the flight. Also I probably just threw the ticket away. Short of getting 50 teens to write me a note to say I was on the flight I’m not sure what to do.

I have received the exact same letter!! Thought it was a scam but rang and got through this morning. I have also been abroad this year too. The first call handler cut me off, the second one when I rang back was very nice but yes we do have to provide all info requested in the letter. They say they have info from the Home Office
saying my passport did not scan on entry to the uk. And I need to provide loads of evidence to prove I am here !!

anyone else??

I am sorry others are also having to deal with this; I also thought it was a scam till I phoned.
how such a major error can happen I don’t know; I didn’t even use the electronic gates on re-entry to UK as I accompanied a minor age student to the manned gates as his passport wouldn’t scan so mine was also done by an immigration officer.
anyway I have now got all the paperwork from who they asked so will be sending back.
such as hassle.

HMRC should have the data from the egates.
The mistake thinking OP lives abroad could be if they don’t have the data from a physical stamp and swipe by a border guard.

I got the same letter today! Went to Italy for one day in February and they haven't got the record of my return. Used E gates at Stansted. Ironically I stopped claiming Child Benefits in April anyway as my husband is earns over the limit! They can't really stop paying what I don't receive in the first place.
I also travelled two weeks in August. But apparently it's totally possible to leave the UK when you never returned there?
Did anyone look through the form they expect you to fill out? All questions are assuming you are still abroad and therefore impossible to answer when you only went on a trip and live here in the UK!

I got one today from a visit I made to a Uk airport in April with work when I didn't even get on a plane and haven't been abroad since last year. Phoned the child benefit number and was told to fill in the form with n/a and provide 3 months of bank statements and letters from kids schools saying they have been attending - madness and stressful!

Hi I received a letter today too. I did a weekend abroad with friends in February and letter mentions no record of me and my children re- entering the UK. Now I have to provide 3 months of evidence , my children didn’t even go on the trip?! School attendance, nhs records, bank statements etc. It’s completely absurd I have to give them all this private information HOWEVER what’s worse is how can they have no record of people re-entering the country. Quite worrying! And I was told it’s a minimum 10 weeks for claim to be dealt with and guess i just need to be able to live with less money?!

Is it all about child benefit
I mean has everyone posting have kids and claiming CB

seems very weird

Not sure I understand your question?

I was told by an immigration officer that the chips in a U.K. passport are only guaranteed for five years and a significant number do fail after this point - mine couldn’t be checked at an e-gate and had to be checked manually. I guess if they check it manually, wave you through, and don’t enter it on the system, this might flag as your not having returned from overseas.

Today, my husband received a letter stating that he left the UK on June 16, 2022, and hasn't returned. This is absurd, as he was at work at the time. They're demanding specific documents. We called the number on the letter to ask what they were basing their false information on. The consultant mentioned something about a home office, saying my husband had canceled a trip, which is completely untrue. I don't know what to do.

This is really inspiring border control considering such information is also used by law enforcement.

Yes. Happened to my friend. She had a letter through saying they have no record of her living in the country because she went on a day trip to Ireland and "never returned". She did return the same day! Birmingham airport. She called up child benefit and they said thousands have been affected. She'd recently given birth here too, working, paying taxes and they still wanted doctors letters, letters from the school???

Took 5 weeks to resolve

Was it 5 weeks from when you sent the evidence back or 5 weeks from when you first received the letter? X

I've had the same letter.

Myself , husband, daughter went for a week to Portugal Oct 2023, I couldn't go as recovering from major surgery but DH and DD still went but hmrc said they have no proof of us returning so I have to send in 3 months bank statements, medical information, all sorts of crazy stuff, plus complete a 5 page questionnaire about moving to Portugal!!! Absolutely absurd! I did a bit of research, it looks like a special task force was set up to reduce child benefit fraud in Aug 2025 but looks like they're making a right mess of it! Just targeting everyone that goes on holiday!!!

I've found information about the task force set up. Looks like they're going about it all the wrong way!
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/child-benefit-action-to-save-350-million-from-claimants-abroad

You do not get a stamp I'd you go through the robot passport system
It does it electronically
The border patrol can see exactly where a person has been

The passport is registered electronically whether you have it done by border control (and get a stamp) or go through the e-gates.

The problem is they are plainly not processing and storing the data accurately in quite a number of cases, sometimes due to chip failure. This issue has been arising ever since the task force made the lazy assumption that border force data was the one source of truth and wholly accurate without basic due diligence. It results in time wasting and expense for many people who have done nothing more than take a normal holiday.

Everyone experiencing this should also be raising it with their MP as an example of incorrect and poor quality data being used by government people guilty of absolutely nothing. If enough people raised it at MP level they can at least adress the lack of due diligence.

It does beg the question of the business case for this task force. If the data has so many false positives the estimates of money to be recovered is likely to be wildly wrong.

An excellent point about raising it with my MP; I will be doing that over the next week.

Hello everyone, I'm a journalist writing an article about this issue and am keen to have a chat with anyone who may have had a letter. Feel free to drop me a line here or on [email protected] Thanks!

This is likely to affect DC who need it most as well. We sent off all the documents required and got it rectified relatively quickly. But that took effort and time which parents with less resources may not have. The cynical part of me wonders if the government is hoping lots of people just don’t act on this and, hey presto, money saved.

OMG. This only works if border force data is accurate, which clearly and very worryingly it isn’t. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry I didn’t see this. No not from holiday if I remember, it was mostly lots of proof we were still resident in the UK, so things like a letter confirming we were registered with a GP, a letter confirming my sons were regularly attending school, letters from DH’s work etc.

They have requested letters from the school, doctors and 3 months of bank statements from the time we was supposed to go on holiday. It seems extreme consider we didn't end up leaving the country

I have received the same later, accusing me of leaving the country 24 months ago. I have no ticket or any memory of traveling 24 months ago; however, I have some pictures confirming my travel abroad 6 months prior to this date so I am sending them these. By the way, I am in full time employment since many years ago and I pay all the taxes, surely, as they are HMRC, they can access such records...The system is broken!