Only one person can claim Child Benefit for a child. Normally, you’ll qualify if you’re responsible for a child under 16 (or under 20 if they stay in approved education or training). You must also be living in the UK. You can claim it as soon as you’ve registered the birth of your child, or they come to live with you.
Child Benefit continues for 20 weeks if 16 or 17-year-olds leave education or training and register with the armed services or a government-sponsored careers service. Contact the Child Benefit Office if you’re not sure about your eligibility.
Usually, you’ll be responsible for a child if you live with them or if you pay the same amount as Child Benefit (or its equivalent) childcare, such as food, clothes or pocket money.
Eligibility rules vary if your child goes into hospital/care or moves out to live with someone else
If a couple is looking after a child then they need to decide who should be the claimant. The person who claims will get National Insurance credits towards their state pension if they are unemployed or earn less than £183 per week.
High Earners
If you or your partner earn an annual salary of over £50,000 then you can claim Child Benefit if your (or your partner’s) individual income is over £50,000, but you may be taxed on the benefit. This is called the High-Income Child Benefit Tax Charge.
You’ll stop receiving Child Benefit immediately if your child:
- starts paid work for 24 hours or more a week and are no longer in approved education or training
- starts an apprenticeship in England
- starts getting certain benefits in their own right, such as Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance or tax credits
Adding a child to an existing claim
You need to call the child benefit helpline if:
- your child is under 6 months old and lives with you
- your child was born in the UK and their birth was registered in England, Scotland or Wales more than 24 hours ago
- you’re a UK, EEA or Swiss national and you’ve lived in the UK since the start of your claim
Child Benefit helpline
Telephone: 0300 200 3100
Welsh language: 0300 200 1900
Textphone: 0300 200 3103
Outside UK: +44 161 210 3086
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm
Claiming
It can take 6 to 12 weeks to process a new Child Benefit claim (or longer if you’re new to the UK) and can be backdated for up to 3 months. To make a claim for the first time the claiming needs to fill in the Child Benefit claim form CH2 and send it to the Child Benefit Office. The address is on the form.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-benefit-claim-form-ch2
Claiming Child Benefit for someone else
You may be able to manage someone else’s Child Benefit claim.
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