HMRC issues £50 compensation to parents after Child Benefit payment delay affects 577,000

The hundreds of thousands of parents who missed out on their regular Child Benefit payments due to an HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) error earlier this month have begun to receive £50 compensation from the taxman.

On June 3, 577,000 parents across the country discovered an unexpected shortfall in their bank accounts when nearly a third of all people due a payment were missed due to an error by HMRC. Financial guru Martin Lewis confirmed that some people began getting letters informing them of the compensation payment, but it's not clear if everyone affected has been informed yet.

Families who were financially hit as a result of the delayed payout can claim further compensation from HMRC for their error. Because of the scale of the issue, the taxman may end up footing a substantial bill if every eligible parent snags their £50 apology payment, reports the Manchester Evening News.

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A person on social media reported that they had been notified of the compensation from HMRC. They shared: "First example I've seen of Child Benefit delay compensation from HMRC, £50 to acknowledge the error and inconvenience, asking for evidence of any extra costs incurred to be reimbursed."

Responding to this, Martin Lewis said he himself had observed a few similar letters, but not a great deal. He added: "Interesting, not many coming in to me yet either. I'll RT to see if there are others."

HMRC's most recent data from August 2023 reveals that there were 6.91 million families receiving Child Benefit payments. At the time, HMRC acknowledged a "processing error" and stated they were working on it "urgently".

An HMRC spokesperson expressed regret over the situation, saying: "We are very sorry that some customers did not receive their scheduled Child Benefit payments as expected and we understand the concern and difficulty this may have caused."

They further added: "We have now fixed the problem and are putting measures in place to prevent this from happening again."