Total Child Benefit payments in 2018-19 amounted to £11.6 billion. It is estimated that approximately £15 million was paid for children resident in another EEA country or Switzerland. The number of children these payments relate to, broken down by the country they reside in, is provided in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Estimated number of children for whom Child Benefit is received where European Community regulations apply, as at February 2019

Footnote: Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. Figures under 5 have been suppressed and shown as ‘-’.

The information is not available. Information on whether the children of Child Benefit claimants have additional support needs is not held by HMRC.

I refer the honourable member to my response to Parliamentary Question (179286) on 23 October 2018.

The Government has always urged families to claim Child Benefit to help protect their future right to the State Pension. Child Benefit claimants on a high income can then opt not to receive payments so they do not have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

Families should still complete the Child Benefit claim form in order to qualify for National Insurance Credits and thus build qualifying years towards the State Pension. Parents are advised to do this on the Child Benefit claim form (which is included in Bounty Packs that go to new parents), through the HMRC helpline, online at GOV.UK and through partners such as Citizen’s Advice.

The Government is continuously looking at ways in which communications can be improved further, both at the birth of a child and for existing Child Benefit claimants.

Some of my constituents have reported ongoing confusion about child benefit. Some who admit that they have claimed child benefit inadvertently have not been told of the money that they owe to HMRC until interest has accumulated for as long as five years. What more can HMRC do to communicate errors more quickly?

This information is not held centrally by HMRC and cannot be provided.

The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) was introduced in January 2013. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) took considerable steps to raise awareness and ran extensive communications campaigns when the tax charge was introduced. This included writing to around 800,000 families affected by the charge when it was launched. HMRC also ran a high profile advertising and media campaign over summer 2013 to prompt those who did not stop their payments to register for Self-Assessment in order to declare and pay the charge.

HMRC continues to make information on the HICBC widely available, and include it in the packs for new parents telling them how to claim Child Benefit. HMRC also give guidance online on Gov.uk.

Individuals who are not in Self-Assessment and are liable for the charge should tell HMRC they are chargeable within 6 months of the end of the tax year. If they do not notify HMRC within 6 months, they should contact HMRC at the earliest opportunity. A penalty may be charged where someone fails to notify HMRC on time. For those who do not, HMRC uses existing compliance processes and penalties.

The rules on interest charged for late payment of the HICBC are the same as those applied to other taxes and duties. Interest is charged from the due and payable date of the tax.

HMRC charges interest on penalties for failure to notify liability to tax which are being appealed against. HMRC charges interest where the penalty is paid late and will pay interest to the individual if the penalty is reduced or withdrawn.

HMRC Call Centre staff have been provided with guidance on HICBC since HICBC was introduced. All call centre guidance is reviewed and updated regularly.

HMRC do not have data on the number of taxpayers who have failed to tell HMRC about their liability for HICBC, or the total number who have been required to register for SA each year since the charge was introduced.

HM Revenue and Customs regularly track the overall processing times for new Child Benefit claims. However, the processing times for those claims received specifically from Northern Ireland are not readily available and cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

The number of Child Tax Credit recipients and the number of Working Tax Credit recipients broken down by Parliamentary constituency are published on the gov.uk website at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525473/cwtc_awards_geog.pdf

The latest available figures are for 2014-15.

The number of Child Benefit recipients, broken down by Parliamentary constituency are published on the gov.uk website at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/601984/Child_Benefit_Geographical_Statistics_Aug_2016.pdf

The latest available figures are as at 31^st August 2016.