Child Benefit unable to locate claim

Have been trying to ring up Child Benefit about a problem with a claim - Child Benefit has been unable to locate the claim. We have absolutely everything (names, dates of birth, NINOs for mum and kids) except the Child Benefit ref. no but we aren’t getting anywhere. We get told that “We can find it with this info”, but then “Sorry, we can’t find it, you’ll have to call again with the ref no”. The claim is still being paid (though at the wrong rate) so it should be on their system somewhere.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Did finding the ref. no actually solve it?

Yes, I had a nightmare case where we were trying to progress an MR and a new claim for close to a year and were repeatedly told that there were no records at all. No response to snail mail.

Eventually got resolved and we made a complaint. Got a letter back explaining that where claims are the subject of clerical action, the records inexplicably become inaccessible to the call centres. Client got £50 compensation.

I’ll try and find that letter when I’m in the office.

This may be wide of the mark, it’s a long time since I received any CB, but do the payment entries on the recipient bank statements have a reference number on them?

Thanks for the replies.

There is a number on the bank statements and we did try that, but they couldn’t find her claim from that either.