While young people are considering their future beyond their GCSE or Scottish National Certificate results, HMRC is asking parents and carers to make sure they update their Child Benefit records by 31 August, or risk seeing their payments end.

HMRC has written to 1.3 million parents and carers of children, who are in the last year of school or education, to remind them to update their Child Benefit records. More than 600,000 families have already notified HMRC, but many have yet to do so.

Parents and carers can update their Child Benefit records using their Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK, by returning a completed copy of the form they were sent earlier in the year, or by telephone.

Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Deputy Chief Executive and Second Permanent Secretary, said:

Child Benefit provides vital financial support for families and we want to make sure no-one misses out because they haven’t updated their details on time.

The quickest way to notify HMRC is via your Personal Tax Account online, or search ‘child benefit when your child turns 16’ on GOV.UK for more information or further options for contacting us.

Child Benefit is paid to eligible parents or carers who are responsible for a child under 16, or under 20 if they are in full-time non-advanced education or approved training. This includes A-levels/ Scottish Highers, NVQs up to Level 3, or certain traineeships – check GOV.UK for a list of approved courses and training schemes.

Visit GOV.UK to find out more about Child Benefit for 16 to 19-year olds

A list of full-time non-advanced education and approved training can be found on GOV.UK. It does not include university degrees, or equivalent, as these are considered “advanced” education.

If parents or carers have an income over £50,000 (or their partner does) and receive Child Benefit, they may have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge via an annual Self Assessment tax return. More information on this can be found on GOV.UK.

Child Benefit is worth £21.80 per week for a first child and £14.45 for each additional child. There’s no limit to the number of children you can claim for. Making a Child Benefit claim also ensures you qualify for National Insurance credits, which contribute towards your State Pension and can, in some circumstances, be transferred to a grandparent or other family member who helps with childcare – known as Specified Adult Childcare Credits (SACC).

The government is offering help for households – check online to find out what cost of living support you could be eligible for.

Tomus Patrick Arif, from Orpington, Southeast London, was the director of two connected companies, Cover Utility Team Limited and Digital Team UK Limited. The companies sold insurance for home appliances.

Cover Utility Team entered into creditors voluntary liquidation in March 2021 and the company’s insolvency triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service into Tomus Arif’s conduct.

Investigators uncovered that Cover Utility Team had previously been investigated and fined £160,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after complaints were received that the two companies connected to Tomus Arif had targeted elderly and vulnerable people.

In 6 months, Tomus Arif caused the company to make just under 77,000 unsolicited calls to people who had registered with the Telephone Preference Service to avoid nuisance calls.

This was a breach of the of Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and Tomus Arif also failed to pay a fee and register with the ICO as a data controller of personal information in a breach of data protection regulations.

Investigators also uncovered customers were often mistreated, complaining they did not take out various home appliance policies but were charged, while some customers did not own the appliance which had allegedly been insured.

On 25 July 2022, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a 7-year disqualification undertaking from Tomus Arif after he did not dispute that he allowed Cover Utility Team to breach privacy and electronic communications regulations, as well as data protection regulations.

Effective from 17 August 2022, Tomus Arif is banned from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Elizabeth Pigney, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Tomus Arif’s conduct fell well below what is expected of a director. Not only did he ignore regulations put in place to guard against unsolicited calls but he ruthlessly targeted elderly and vulnerable people to purchase insurance often which they didn’t need.

Thanks to joint working with the ICO we have removed Tomus Arif from the corporate arena for a substantial amount of time. His 7-year ban should serve as a harsh warning to other rogue directors that we will use the full extent of our powers to curb reckless and harmful behaviour.

An ICO spokesperson said:

Unwanted calls are at best a nuisance and in the worst cases can cause real distress. Complaints regarding the mis-selling of white goods insurance are among some of the highest we receive, and we’d encourage people to tell us when they get one.

The information people provide helps us track down offenders and take action to stop them making further calls, as well as deterring others from doing the same. We also jointly work with other regulators, including The Insolvency Service, to take the appropriate regulatory action against the companies and individuals behind these scams.

This case was brought as a result of an operation set up to look specifically at White Goods Insurance and companies targeting vulnerable individuals. His companies were found to have made 77,000 predatory marketing calls in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

Tomus Patrick Arif is from Orpington, southeast London, and his date of birth is May 1999.

Cover utility Team Limited (Company number 12133070)

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• £37.65 million of urgent UK humanitarian funding will deliver life-saving assistance across Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria and Niger.

• 20 million are projected to be in need of urgent aid across the region by the end of 2022.

• The money will help fund two projects for the next year focused on the most vulnerable, including malnourished women and children.

The UK will support around 1 million of the most vulnerable people across the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin with food, water and sanitation.

Growing instability and violent extremism across the region and the war on Ukraine have exacerbated existing issues with food insecurity and malnutrition. As things stand, there will be close to 20 million people across the region in need of humanitarian aid by the end of the year.

And the Sahel faces further vulnerabilities due to climate change and extreme weather shocks, putting unimaginable stress on communities, meaning urgent intervention by the international community is now a necessity.

The UK is providing £37.65 million in urgent humanitarian assistance, focused on these areas where conflict, climate change and extreme hunger is causing the most suffering.

Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford said:

Millions of people across the Sahel and West Africa are unimaginably suffering with hunger and malnutrition.

That’s why the UK will step up with an urgent £38 million of humanitarian funding, reaching those most vulnerable and saving lives across the region.

The number of people facing starvation are at their worst for a decade. Whilst this UK funding is a necessity, it has to be part of a bigger international effort. We’re calling on international partners to enhance our collective support and scale-up intervention to halt this humanitarian catastrophe.

£19.9 million will support The Sahel Humanitarian Assistance and Protection Programme (SHAPP), a programme which has been responding to the most acute needs, including those of displaced and malnourished women and children, and enables safer access for humanitarian aid workers to reach them.

The funding ensures delivery partners including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the INGO-run Sahel Regional Fund can continue their heroic, life-saving work in the region. The funding also supports the work of the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) and the International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO).

Their work between 2019-2022 under the Sahel Humanitarian Emergency Response Programme (SHERP) supported 2.7 million people with food assistance, provided treatment to nearly 900,000 severely malnourished children and ensured over 1.5 million mothers could detect malnutrition among their children, enabling early intervention.

In addition, £15 million of emergency humanitarian funding has been made available for North-East Nigeria over the next few months, when food is most scarce and humanitarian needs are highest. Violence, displacement, poverty and climate shocks are just some of the many reasons why 8.4 million people need life-saving humanitarian assistance there. This emergency funding supports the UK’s work alongside the Nigerian government to build security in the face of growing instability in the north of the country.

In North-East Nigeria, the UK is proud to be supporting the work of our delivery partners – the World Food Programme and UNICEF – whose aid workers put themselves at great risk in order to reach those suffering most.

This food assistance funding is part of the UK’s wider commitment to prioritise life-saving humanitarian aid to communities around the world who are most vulnerable due to the ongoing combination of crises.

Background

• The funding will be used to provide emergency shelter, food assistance, nutrition, water and sanitation for the most vulnerable in geographic hotspots of need
• The humanitarian assistance will be delivered through implementing partners such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International NGO Safety Organisation
• £19.9 million is for 2022 SHAPP activity alone with an additional £1.8 million for multi-year SHAPP activity.