MORE than 200,000 Hampshire families have been told to watch their bank accounts after the sensitive personal details of every child benefit claimant in Britain were lost in the post.

It has emerged that two compact discs of data, mislaid by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) last month, contained files on 214,330 families in the county and the Isle of Wight.

The password-protected files, which are not encrypted, include claimants' and children's names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers and, in some cases, bank details.

HMRC figures show 24,200 families in Southampton are affected, 14,480 in Eastleigh, 12,820 in Fareham, 9,840 in Gosport, 18,650 in the New Forest, 13,890 in Test Valley, 12,480 in Winchester and 15,045 on the Isle of Wight.

Following the security blunder, which placed some 25 million individuals and 7.2 million families across Britain at risk of identity fraud, banks and building societies urged claimants to be "vigilant" in monitoring their accounts for suspicious activity.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised for the security lapse and said a junior official should never have been in a position to post the sensitive information by courier.

He said there was no evidence the data had fallen into criminal hands and announced a fresh inquiry into the fiasco. If fraud did occur customers would be reimbursed for any losses under the banking code.

Mark Hoban, Conservative MP for Fareham, said: "Thousands of families across our area will be anxious about whether or not someone will find this information and use it to take money out of their bank accounts.

"We expect Government to protect families, not to put their financial affairs at risk. I would have thought organisations like Revenue and Customs would treat this data with more care."

To read more, see today's Daily Echo