Child Benefit error ‘threw family into disarray’

A mother-of-four has said a delay in receiving Child Benefit “threw the family into disarray” this week.

About half a million people were left without the payment after a technical issue at HMRC.

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

Christine McCrea, from Dunmurry, told BBC News NI that she relied “quite heavily” on the money.

“On Monday morning my electric meter usually would be in minus,” she said.

“I’m running through to the end of the week and I’m trying to be sparse on electrics so that it won’t knock off on Friday, which means over the weekend I incur a big minus into my electric metre so on Monday I really need that money to top it up.”

Ms McCrea said a direct debit for her phone and internet bill was also due to go out of her account on Monday.

“So when I woke up instead of having the £52 that I was expecting there was minus £22 and I just went into a state of panic,” she said.

“When you’re trying to work on credit score that direct debit will affect me for a while,”

Ms McCrea said she had to ask friends for help with purchasing basic items.

“Very fortunately for me a neighbour was able to give me some nappies,” she said.

She added that it was “very unnerving” not knowing when the issue would be resolved.

A spokesperson for HMRC said they were “very sorry that some customers did not receive their scheduled Child Benefit payments as expected”.

“We understand the concern and difficulty this may have caused,” they said, adding that the problem was now fixed and they were “putting measures in place to prevent this from happening again”.

They said those affected would 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.”

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.