Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-02-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many foreign nationals living in the UK have been prosecuted for a fraudulent child benefit claim for a child living in the EU.

Damian Hinds

The Government has in place a robust system for verifying that those EEA nationals claiming Child Benefit are entitled to do so under the current rules and there is a wide range of checks carried out on new and existing claims to confirm their validity.

Cases of Child Benefit fraud can be investigated by DWP and the Single Fraud Investigation Service (a partnership between DWP Fraud Investigation Service and HMRC), as part of a wider investigation of welfare benefit fraud.

HMRC therefore does not hold figures on the number of Child Benefit prosecutions of foreign nationals.