Ministers announce clampdown on UK child benefit claims from overseas
Ministers have announced a clampdown on people who continue to claim child benefit payments even though they have moved abroad, in measures that could save the taxpayer £350m over five years.The government said 2,600 people who had left the UK but still claimed the benefit had already been removed from the welfare system.Tens of thousands more people who are fraudulently or erroneously claiming child benefit while living outside the UK now face having their payments stopped as part of the government’s crackdown.The Cabinet Office is increasing the number of officials working on stopping child benefit fraud and error to 200 from next month, following a pilot programme in which 15 investigators stopped £17m in wrongful payments in less than a year.Officials will use international travel data to check if claimants have moved overseas.
Georgia Gould, a Cabinet Office minister, said: “From September, we’ll have 10 times as many investigators saving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money,If you’re claiming benefits you’re not entitled to, your time is up,”Child benefit is paid to more than 6,9 million families to support 11,9 million children, and is one of the most commonly accessed benefits in the UK.
People are no longer eligible to claim the benefit if they are outside the UK for more than eight weeks, barring exceptional circumstances,Claimants must inform HMRC if they are leaving the country for eight weeks or more,The government wants to raise awareness of these rules, in recognition that some people continue to claim the benefit in error,The pilot was carried out jointly by the Public Sector Fraud Authority, the Home Office and HMRC, who compared a random sample of 200,000 claim records with international travel data,Where the data suggested a claimant had left the country, HMRC investigators performed manual checks before deciding whether benefits were being claimed incorrectly.
HMRC contacts claimants to inform them that their benefits will be stopped and details their rights to appeal.The government has made cracking down on wrongful benefit payments a significant part of its efforts to cut spending.Benefit overpayments are estimated by the government to have cost the public purse £9.5bn in the year to March.Sign up to Headlines UKGet the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morningafter newsletter promotionThe public authorities (fraud, error and recovery) bill, which is making its way through parliament, has been called the “biggest ever crackdown on fraud against the public purse”.
It gives the government the power to recover money directly from fraudsters’ bank accounts, a move which has been criticised because of its potential impact on the poorest claimants.Earlier this year ministers attempted to reduce the government’s overall working-age benefit bill by £5bn a year with cuts to disability benefits, but were forced to backtrack in the face of a major Commons rebellion.A heavily watered-down version of the benefits bill, which cut the health-related element of universal credit for some claimants, was approved by MPs last month.Despite the climbdown, 47 Labour MPs still voted against the bill.
Australia run riot with 11 tries in Rugby World Cup win over Samoa
Australia made light work of Samoa with a flawless performance in Salford, registering their record margin of victory in a Women’s World Cup game to move top of Group A after the opening round of fixtures.With the competition expanding from 12 teams to 16, it was perhaps expected there would be some one-sided results. This was categorically one of those as the Wallaroos began their campaign with a dominant victory to tee up what will almost certainly be a winner-takes-all clash with USA next Saturday in York to qualify with England.They scored 11 tries, including seven in a blistering first-half performance to not only surpass their record 62-0 victory over South Africa, in the 2010 tournament, but move ahead of England on points difference. Samoa showed plenty of spirit, but they were well beaten on their first World Cup appearance since 2014
Australia 73-0 Samoa: Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 – as it happened
That’s it from Salford, comrades. Stay tuned for a match report from the Guardian team and tune in tomorrow for more of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup!Massive confidence boost for the Australians to not only sciore 73-points but also hold Samoa to zip. Great performances from all the Wallaroos but Cecelia Smith has been awarded Player of the Match, a great honour for the star from the Leeton Dianas.Samoa didn’t challenge as we thought they might but we are now seeing them arm-in-arm in a ring with the Australians post-match and there are smiles all round. Beautiful scenes as Emily Chancellor speaks to the assembly and brings tears to the eyes of many
Swiatek the one to beat in New York while Alcaraz and Sinner dominate men’s draw
Iga Swiatek has finally had a brief moment to catch her breath. Her life has been on fast-forward for the last few hectic yet rewarding weeks, emerging from the heat and humidity of the Cincinnati Open with another significant title. Fourteen hours later she was on court in New York, throwing herself into two long days of competition alongside her new partner, Casper Ruud. The stakes were low for singles players in the mixed doubles this week but every point she played meant more mental energy expended.There is still little time for Swiatek to reflect on how the summer has developed, but with the final grand slam tournament of the year starting on Sunday it is clear the past few months have become a defining moment in her career
‘Pressure is a privilege’: Braxton Sorensen-McGee on being New Zealand’s youngest star
The 18-year-old is one of several prominent young Black Ferns fighting to retain the title and secure New Zealand’s seventh World CupBack in 2022, Braxton Sorensen-McGee was in the Eden Park crowd to watch the heart-stopping semi-final between France and New Zealand. The then 16-year-old, at the ground with her school team, remembers the moment of relief when a last-minute French penalty goal attempt drifted wide, allowing the Black Ferns to scrape through to the final of the Women’s World Cup. In another gripping contest against arch-rivals England, New Zealand went on to win the tournament.Now, Sorensen-McGee hopes to play a decisive role in retaining the title. After a breakout 2025, the 18-year-old is the youngest member of the Black Ferns squad, who take on Spain on Monday morning (NZT) in their opening act of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, hosted by England
England to ring changes and ‘get everyone started’, says John Mitchell
England should “get everyone started” across their 32-player Rugby World Cup squad in their opening two games, says the head coach, John Mitchell, who all but confirmed there will be a raft of changes to the Red Roses matchday XV to face Samoa next Saturday.The news came after the Red Roses’ thumping win against the USA with Emma Sing and Sarah Bern among the players not to start a match and former captain Marlie Packer among those not yet involved in a matchday squad.Those stars are now more than likely to start the game with Mitchell saying: “We have planned our teams for the early part of the tournament.“Obviously the unpredicted niggles, we have to account for that but we will get everyone started by the end of next week which has been our plan. Hopefully we are able to execute that
Salford stumble on in crisis with their future on the line and fans demanding answers
The notion of Salford walking out on Friday night to play their game against Leigh may seem to casual observers like a positive step, given they failed to fulfil their recent fixture against Wakefield and seem engulfed in a perma-crisis.In hindsight, the Salford warning signs were there last winter when the club requested an advance of £500,000 on their central distribution to survive the off-season. “We should have seen the wolves were at the door then,” one Super League chief executive said this week.A long-awaited takeover, led by the businessman Dario Berta in February, was supposed to end the uncertainty. If anything, it has only worsened it
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