Parents have been left confused after receiving smaller child benefit payments than normal this week. A number of parents have reported seeing a small payment due to come into their accounts on Friday May 27, three days before their usual payment date on Monday.
ChronicleLive reports that parents have been left puzzled by the changes, which were not previously announced to claimants or online, and have left many with lower payments than usual. A recorded message on HMRC's helpline has told parents that one-quarter of the child benefit payment would be paid on Friday.
It adds the remaining three quarters would be paid on Monday, but gave no explanation for the split payment. A number of parents posted their confusion on social media after noticing they'd been given less money than usual.
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An update on the HMRC website says that if your payment is due on Monday May 30, you’ll get your payment, or part of it, early. If you normally get it every four weeks on a Monday, you’ll get one week’s worth of payment on Friday May 27 and the remaining three weeks’ worth on Monday May 30.
If you normally get child benefit weekly and are due to receive a payment on Monday May 30, you’ll get it on Friday May 27. An HMRC spokesperson confirmed the changes were "nothing to worry about" and were carried out in order to ensure people get the correct payments over the upcoming Jubilee weekend.
"In short, it’s just processes and working them around the bank holidays, and nothing for customers to worry about," they said. "We usually process payments for customers on Thursday and Fridays for the following Monday and Tuesday. Of course this isn’t possible because of the bank holidays falling on these two dates next week.
"Instead, we processed payments due Monday and Tuesday May 30 and 31 earlier this week, so that we can process payments due on Monday June 6 early next week, as opposed to the usual Thursday/Friday. This will ensure customers receive payments due on Monday and Tuesday June 6 and 7 on time."
