Child Benefit

Child benefit is the Government's way of acknowledging the costs involved in raising a child. It's paid monthly to anyone responsible for children under the age of 16 (or under 20 if they stay in approved full-time education or unpaid training). You can also get child benefit for an extra 20 weeks in some circumstances (for example, if your child joins the armed forces). 

Who can get it?

You'll usually qualify for child benefit if the child you're applying for lives with you, or if you're paying at least the same weekly amount as the benefit towards looking after them. For example, you might pay for clothes, food, pocket money or birthday and Christmas gifts. This includes grandparents, adoptive parents and some foster parents.

If two people are responsible for the same child, only one will get the payment. Parents can decide between themselves who receives it – otherwise, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will decide. HMRC will give the child benefit to the parent the child lives with the most.

By claiming child benefit, you will also earn national insurance credits, which count towards your state pension. You need 30 years' worth of national insurance credits to receive the full state pension, so this is especially important if one of you is a non-earner or earns less than £118 a week - the amount you need to get national insurance credits.

If you are not working or earning under £118, claiming child benefit effectively lets you earn national insurance credits you wouldn't have otherwise have earned. HMRC reckons 200,000 parents are losing out in this way because their partner with a higher income, not them, is registered for child benefit.

You can claim child benefit as soon as you've registered the birth or the child has come to live with you. It can take up to 12 weeks to process your claim and can only be backdated three months.

 The 2019/20 tax year is the last year of a four-year rate freeze. There are two weekly child benefit rates:

• For a first-born or only child: £20.70
• For additional children: £13.70 per child

This applies even for a multiple birth, so if you have twins born within minutes of each other, you'll still get different amounts for them.

While it may not look like a lot of money broken down, it adds up. If you claim for one child until they're 16, this rate amounts to £17,222 over their childhood.

If you've a bigger brood, the individual amount you get for your second and subsequent children will be lower, but the total will be higher. For example, assuming today's rates don't change, if you've two children, the amount for the elder will be £17,222, and the amount for the younger will be £11,398 – a combined £28,620 over their childhoods.

You'll usually be paid once a month, and the whole amount must go into the same account. It can't be split between parents.

Child benefit is affected by the benefit cap. This sets the maximum yearly total you can get on benefits. What you get depends on where you live and your circumstances (eg, a single parent living with children is limited to £20,000 a year outside London but for the same situation it's capped at £23,000 in the capital). So if you're close to your limit and claim child benefit, your award may be capped, but there are exceptions.

Quick questions

HMRC has refunded £1.8m in fines over 'failure to notify' fees

HMRC has issued refunds worth £1.8 million to almost 5,000 families who were issued so-called 'failure to notify' penalties for the tax years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.

When the high income benefit charge was introduced in 2013, many parents with an income of more than £50,000 weren't aware that they had to notify HMRC that they earned enough to pay the tax charge, and, as a result, were charged the penalty fees.

Anyone who was due a refund has now received it. Read more about this in our MSE News story.