Thousands of households affected by a benefit payment error have been told they can get an extra £50 ‘bonus’ payment from HMRC. But they are being encouraged to “act soon” in order to get the cash.
The money is available for some families whose Child Benefit payments were delayed earlier this month over a “processing error”. The glitch left households out of pocket and some are now being offered redress.
People may be able to get the cash if they suffered “distress”, such as going without their payments for a number of days, or faced extra costs as a result of the delay, such as incurring overdraft or direct debit charges. The latter could receive more than £50 if they have faced costs totalling over that amount.
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They will need to apply and claims will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Experts at Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert (MSE) said: “There’s no deadline for submitting a complaint, but HMRC has encouraged those affected to do so soon in order to receive a redress payment more quickly.”
Details of how to submit are available from MSE here. They added: “Child Benefit claimants are starting to receive redress from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after their payments were delayed earlier this month due to a “processing error”.
“HMRC says complaints will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.”
