Missing Child Benefit payment HMRC: Money expert Martin Lewis offers advice as thousands concerned

Many people took to social media across the weekend and into Monday concerned at the lack of payment which they were expecting.

Money Saving Expert’s Martin Lewis ran a poll on X which indicated up to 80% of people were affected by the delay in receiving payment.

He then used his social media account to update parents across the country, with HMRC said to be ‘working on it urgently’.

No timeframe has been put on when the problem will be fixed, he added.

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His post read: “Child benefit update - pls share

“After my Twitter poll earlier which indicates 80% of those expecting child benefit payments this morning haven't got them, we contacted HMRC. It's told us...

“- 30% of people who should have been paid today haven’t been (possible, the poll is self selecting so those who haven't got are more likely to respond), this still likely means huge numbers of people.

“- HMRC doesn’t have an exact cause or timeframe on fixing the problem to share at this stage! Though it is working on it urgently.

“- It request people DON'T call it right now about this (it won't help till they sort. We'll update when we hear more).

“- Once the issue has been fixed, if people are out of pocket, they should complain to HMRC for redress (so I'd suggests this means if you've had a charge as a payment bounced due to no Child Benefit, note it down and then later try asking it to cover that charge).”

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An HMRC spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that some customers’ Child Benefit payments have not arrived and we are working urgently to resolve the issue."

More to follow.

UPDATE 6PM

An HMRC spokesperson said: “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. We have now fixed the problem and are putting measures in place to prevent this from happening again.

"Affected customers will now receive their payments on Wednesday morning (5th June). Anyone who has incurred a direct financial loss because of the delayed payment can apply for redress by completing our online complaints form.”