The Treasury Minister has confirmed no benefits have been handed out to children no longer living in the Isle of Man.

In a written Tynwald question, Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse ask Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson what checks are carried out to determine whether children whose parents receive benefits to support them are in the Island.

He also asked on how many occasions in each of the last three years such benefits have been ceased because of a failure to provide evidence that a child was in the Island.

In his written response, Dr Allinson said: ‘Recipients of child benefit and income-related benefits are obliged to tell the Social Security Division if a child of theirs is no longer living with them and action can be taken against them if they fail to do so and they continue to receive benefits they are not entitled to.

‘The Social Security Division has not become aware of any cases in recent years where a parent has claimed benefit for a child who is not resident on the island and for whom they are not entitled to benefit or has continued to claim benefit in the Island in respect of a child who has left the Island and for whom they are no longer entitled to benefit.’

Dr Allison then cited work which has taken place in the UK to clamp down on such cases which resulted in the removal of 2,600 people from the system who had left the UK but continued to claim Child Benefit.

He added: ‘In the Isle of Man, Treasury’s Social Security Division does have measures in place to validate the residency status of any individual who claim benefits.

‘Furthermore, Social Security Inspectors carry out checks on a case by a case basis to determine whether children whose parents receive benefits to support them are still in the Island.’