SEVEN STAFF have been fired from the Belfast office of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for cutting the child benefit paid to immigrant parents.
The staff, all of whom are male, were fired yesterday after being found accused of tampering with computer records at the office so that migrant parents were paid less child benefit than they were correctly entitled to.
Another two staff quit their jobs after an investigation was launched in January, when a customer complained that their records appeared to have been changed inappropriately.
The records are understood to relate to customers across the UK, and not just those living in Northern Ireland itself. 17 people are understood to have been affected by the scam.
In all cases the affected parties have been reimbursed by the full amount they were due. It has not been disclosed by how much the customers were underpaid.
Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HMRC, said the department operated a zero-tolerance policy on any racial discrimination, saying that the “vast majority of our people are entirely professional and one of the ways we support that professionalism is by taking decisive action against the tiny minority who let us all down by falling far short of those standards.”
The chief executive of the North’s Council for Ethnic Minorities, Patrick Yu, said he was appalled that nine people from one office could have conspired to take such action in the first place and described it as ”pretty horrific”.
The North’s Equality Commission is expected to meet HMRC reps in the coming days over the incident.
“From our experiences, non-nationals have little knowledge or no understanding of our benefit system. Due to our complex benefit calculation it is difficult to know what amount of benefits he or she is entitled to. In most cases they will accept the HMRC amounts without questioning.”
Yu praised HMRC, however, for its quick action in disciplining the people behind the actions.
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