In a significant move to curb benefit fraud, the UK government has announced a comprehensive crackdown on individuals fraudulently claiming child benefits while residing abroad. This initiative aims to save taxpayers £350 million over the next five years by targeting those who continue to receive payments despite being ineligible due to extended stays outside the UK.

Enhanced Investigations and Data Sharing

Starting next month, a dedicated team of over 200 investigators will be deployed to scrutinize child benefit claims using international travel data. This expansion follows a successful pilot program where 15 investigators prevented £17 million in wrongful payments within a year. The pilot, conducted by the Public Sector Fraud Authority, the Home Office, and HMRC, involved matching a random sample of 200,000 child benefit records with travel data to identify claimants who had left the country.

Eligibility Rules and Awareness Campaign

Under current regulations, claimants must notify HMRC if they plan to be outside the UK for more than eight weeks, except under exceptional circumstances such as medical treatment or family bereavement. Failure to do so results in the loss of eligibility for child benefits, which support over 6.9 million families in the UK. The government aims to raise awareness of these rules to prevent unintentional fraud.

Broader Efforts to Combat Benefit Fraud

This crackdown is part of a larger governmental effort to reduce benefit overpayments, which amounted to £9.5 billion in the last fiscal year. The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error, and Recovery) Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, is touted as the "biggest ever crackdown on fraud against the public purse." It includes provisions for recovering funds directly from fraudsters' bank accounts, though this has sparked concerns about potential impacts on vulnerable claimants.

Ministerial Support and Future Plans

Cabinet Office Minister Georgia Gould emphasized the importance of this initiative, stating, "From September, we'll have ten times as many investigators saving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money. If you're claiming benefits you're not entitled to, your time is up." The government is also exploring similar measures for other benefits claimed overseas to further safeguard public funds.