Child benefit is a regular payment from the Government to help with the cost of raising children. Almost eight million families claim it and seven million of them currently receive money.

However, it comes with strict eligibility rules and a range of other considerations like tapered allowances, National Insurance Credits, and changes announced in the Budget.

Last month the Chancellor raised the threshold at which families start to lose the benefit from £50,000 to £60,000 and increased how much the benefit is worth. 

You’ll also need to know whether you have to pay any of it back, and the penalties if you don’t, as well as how to report a change in circumstances and what happens if you receive too much.

Telegraph Money takes you through who is eligible to claim child benefit, how much you can get and what else you need to know.

What is child benefit?

Child benefit is a payment to people responsible for bringing up children. It’s paid per child, usually until they reach a certain age or leave full time education.

Technically it’s not means-tested, although rules based on your income do apply. Even if you don’t receive any payments, there are extra advantages to claiming.

How does child benefit work in the UK?

You can apply for child benefit through the government website. 

Once your claim is approved, it’s paid directly into your bank account every four weeks. It is not subject to tax.

Who is eligible?

You can claim it if you live in the UK and are responsible for a child. This means you either live with them, or pay an amount towards their upkeep that’s at least equal to child benefit. There’s no limit to how many children you can claim for.

You don’t have to be their parent to claim – foster parents, adoptive parents and anyone looking after a child are usually eligible, as long as the local council isn’t paying towards the child’s maintenance. 

However, only one person can claim per child, so if you’re a parent with a joint custody arrangement, for example, you will need to discuss who applies.

If you live abroad temporarily you might still be able to claim, particularly if you work for the Government. 

How much is child benefit?

For the 2024-25 tax year, you will receive:

  • £25.60 a week for your first or only child
  • £16.95 a week per additional child.

This is usually received every four weeks on a Monday or Tuesday, so each payment will be £102.40 for your first child and £67.80 per additional child. This increased during the 2024 Spring Budget. 

In total each year, you’ll receive:

  • £1,331.20 for your first or only child
  • £881.40 for each additional child

You can ask to be paid weekly if you’re either a single parent or claiming certain other benefits, like Universal Credit.

How to claim child benefit

You can claim from 48 hours after the child’s birth online, by phone or by post. 

You can do this whenever you like, but claims are only backdated for three months.

When does it stop?

It stops automatically on the 31st of August on or after your child’s 16th birthday. It can also stop if your child’s circumstances change, such as they move away from home, go to prison, enter long term hospital care or die. 

You will need to inform HMRC of this. If you’re not sure if something affects your claim it’s best to check.

However, you can keep claiming if your child stays in approved education or training up to the age of 20 – but you’ll need to let HMRC know so they can keep paying you. 

When you do this, you’ll tell HMRC what your child’s plans are, such as remaining in full time education. 

HMRC then stops the payment automatically after they finish – this happens at the end of February, May, August or November, whichever comes first.

Some examples of when it will stop are when the child:

  • Leaves full time education
  • Joins approved education, but for less than 12 hours a week
  • Begins advanced education (such as a teaching qualification, degree or NVQ Level 4 or higher)
  • Starts work
  • Turns 20

However, if your child’s situation changes, for example they decide to leave full time education earlier than planned to start an apprenticeship, you must inform HMRC immediately. 

The same applies to a change in your family life, such as if you decide to get married. You can report these online.

If you’re paid too much child benefit or receive money after it should have stopped, tell HMRC straight away. You can be prosecuted if you had the chance to and did nothing.

What is the High Income Child Benefit Charge?

If you or a partner who lives with you earns more than £60,000, you will have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge. 

This applies even if the other earns less than £60,000, and it doesn’t matter if one or both of you aren’t the child’s biological parent. 

You have to repay 1pc of your child benefit for every £200 you earn over £60,000. 

This is based on your taxable income before any allowances, including any interest from savings and dividends. If you earn over £80,000, you’ll have to repay everything you receive.

If you and your partner earn over £60,000 combined, but neither of you does individually, you will not have to pay anything back. This means a household where one person earns £61,000 would pay, but two people earning £59,000 each would not.

It’s possible that your income might change during the tax year, for example if you get a new job or a high-earning partner moving in. You should calculate whether this will mean some or all your child benefit needs to be repaid.

The rules can be complex if you separate from your partner and either of you, or a new partner, earns more than £60,000. In this instance, you should check with HMRC.

You can receive child benefit payments and pay the charge at the end of each tax year by registering for self assessment and filling out a tax return. There are penalties if you do not pay – usually around 30pc on top of what you owe. 

Alternatively, you can opt not to receive the payments. 

How does child benefit affect National Insurance credits?

It’s almost always worth claiming child benefit, even if one of you earns over £80,000. When you claim, you can tick a box to opt out of receiving the payments, which saves you having to pay them back.

However, even if you claim but then opt out of the payments you will receive National Insurance Credits. If you earn less than £123 a week, for example due to looking after a child and not working, you don’t build up National Insurance Contributions. 

This means that these years won’t contribute to your state pension, for which you need 10 years to get anything and 35 for the full amount. 

In short, if you don’t catch up later by returning to work and making enough years of National Insurance Contributions, you will get less state pension when you retire.

However, if you’re claiming child benefit, even if you don’t receive payments, you will automatically get National Insurance credits until the child is 12. For every full year you do this, it counts as a full year of state pension contributions.

From April 2026, it will also be possible to claim National Insurance credits all the way back to 2013 if you were eligible for child benefit during that time, even if you weren’t claiming. Going forward, you’ll only be able to claim the previous six years. Remember though – you can only backdate a child benefit payment claim three months.

Being registered for child benefit will also ensure that the child automatically gets a National Insurance number when they turn 16.

You’ll also get Guardian’s Allowance if you’re looking after a child whose parents have died. Under certain circumstances, you can receive it if there’s a surviving parent who isn’t contributing to the child’s upkeep.

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