- Are you affected by the delay? Email arthur.parashar@mailonline.co.uk
Furious parents say they cannot put food on the table after an HMRC error prevented some child benefit payments from arriving as planned on Monday.
HMRC has apologized after around 30 per cent of child benefit payments scheduled for June 3 failed to arrive in claimants’ accounts – equivalent to around 500,000 parents.
The tax authorities said they will have to wait until Wednesday for the money to appear in their accounts.
Child benefit is usually paid every four weeks on Monday or Tuesday. The allowance is usually £25.60 for the eldest or only child and £16.95 per child for additional children.
‘Disgusted’ parents accused HMRC of ‘leaving families without anything’, while others said they were incurring bank charges because they were overdrawn.
Crystal Kelly, who desperately needed the Monday payment to buy food and other essentials for her three-year-old son, told MailOnline: ‘This situation is a joke, I need that money.
“I can’t borrow anything to help me and that money helps me every Monday.”
She said HMRC had not handled the situation properly, adding: ‘I have to wait sick tomorrow to get it [the money] and that’s not good for a single parent like me.’
Ms Kelly said waiting until Wednesday would make a “big difference”.
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After HMRC apologized and said they were ‘urgently working to resolve the issue’, parents reacted angrily on social media.
Natalie Pratt said she was worried about having to wait until Wednesday for the money, writing: ‘We had baked beans on toast for dinner (no complaints, it was quite tasty) but what am I going to do for tomorrow’s packed lunch? the kids? Really annoying and extremely stressful.’
Ashleigh Jade Kutryk said it was ‘totally unacceptable’, adding: ‘This was a mistake on your part so you should pay up sooner because now vulnerable families have to struggle for another day.
‘Don’t you think today has been enough stress for all of us? I love how all tomorrow’s payments are going through normally, but we have to play the game of struggle and wait. It’s not on!’
A third mother, Chantelle Whitehead, wrote: ‘This is shocking, how can you leave families without anything?’
And another, Sinead-Cassidy Phelan, said: ‘Absolute joke! I relied on that today to get what my son needs! There is hardly anything in the closet for him, you expect me and everyone else who counted on today to wait until Wednesday!
‘Absolutely smoking!’
Nick Cough added: ‘People’s child benefits still haven’t arrived, it’s disgusting.’
Jane Fairclough Greenwood wrote: ‘Not good enough HMRC. No one should have to file – you know who you haven’t paid – so just send them a late payment credit and then pay for any loss anyone incurred.
‘This could have led to people overdrawing their overdrafts, putting them in a difficult situation with their bank. This is again disgusting behavior.
In August 2023, 6.91 million families received child benefits.
People may be eligible for child benefit if they are responsible for a child under the age of 16 and live in Britain.
The problem with payments was caused by a processing error.
An HMRC spokesperson said: ‘We are sorry that some customers’ child benefit payments have not arrived as planned and we are working urgently to resolve the issue.
“The issues that caused payment problems today do not affect payments scheduled for tomorrow.”
HMRC also posted a statement on
“Customers do not need to call us and we will provide updates here as they become available.”