I don't really want to start a debate on the rights of wrongs of the policy itself (and perhaps it's worth adding that I am completely unaffected by it).
What I don't understand is why some clever legal eagle hasn't yet been instructed to challenge the policy, or at least its implementation, on a similar basis to that which forced the UK to pay Child Benefit in respect of children in other EU states, which, as I understand it, is about non-discrimination between UK and non-UK EU citizens.
The HICBC policy implementation seems to work by HMRC identifying, in the first instance, people in the UK with sufficiently high income that they are potentially liable to pay back their own or someone else's Child Benefit.
How on earth does this capture the (potentially high) income of a non-UK partner living outside the UK? Are such couples not at an advantage, and, if so, are UK citizens not being unfairly discriminated against?
Just a thought.