Child Benefit: £27.05 a week per child — and why you should claim even if you have to pay it all back

Child Benefit is paid in the UK not because you are poor but because you have a child. £27.05 a week for the eldest and £17.90 for each additional child. Over a year that is £1,406 for one child and £2,337 for two.

But for newcomers the money is not the main prize. A Child Benefit claim automatically credits one parent with National Insurance towards the state pension for every week until the child turns twelve — and it does so even for people who opted out of the payments. That is why it is worth claiming on a £90,000 salary, when every penny goes back.

One warning first, without which nothing below applies: Child Benefit is on the public funds list. If your permission to stay carries a no recourse to public funds condition, you must NOT claim — it breaches your visa conditions. More on that below.

How much is it, and for how many children?

Two rates, neither of which depends on household income:

£27.05 a week for the eldest or only child.
£17.90 a week for each additional child.

Per year: one child £1,406.60, two £2,337.40, three £3,268.20. There is no cap on the number of children.

Only one person can receive it for a given child. If a family splits and children live with different parents, each parent gets the higher £27.05 rate for their eldest.

Who qualifies — and who must not claim?

You qualify if you are responsible for a child under 16 and live in the UK. "Responsible" means the child lives with you, or you contribute at least the value of the benefit towards their upkeep.

After 16 it continues until the child is 20, provided they stay in approved education or training. If a 16 or 17 year old leaves education and registers with a government-sponsored careers service or joins the armed services, it can continue for another 20 weeks.

Now the immigration status question, which matters most here.

Child Benefit is officially a public fund. So:

— Settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme: you can claim.
— Pre-settled status: you can claim if one of these applies — you are working and earning above the National Insurance primary threshold for three continuous months; you are jobseeking, within 91 days; or you have sufficient resources to support yourself and your family.
— A visa carrying no recourse to public funds (which covers most work and study visas): you must NOT claim. Accessing public funds under that condition breaches your permission to stay, with consequences that can reach a refusal to extend.

Check your own condition in your permission: the line "no public funds" or "no recourse to public funds" in your eVisa and in the Home Office decision. If in doubt, do not claim until you have checked.

What is the High Income Child Benefit Charge?

It is the tax that claws the benefit back from higher earners. The threshold applies to ONE person's income, not the household's.

If you or your partner have an adjusted net income above £60,000, some of the benefit goes back. The formula: 1% of the benefit for every £200 above the threshold. At £80,000 or more, all of it goes back.

HMRC's own example: income of £67,600 is £7,600 over; divided by 200 that is 38, so you repay 38% of the benefit received.

Adjusted net income is not the salary on your contract. It is all taxable income including savings interest and dividends, calculated before the Personal Allowance and after certain reliefs such as pension contributions and Gift Aid. Workplace pension contributions genuinely pull the figure down — sometimes below the threshold.

There are two ways to pay. Through PAYE, deducted from your salary — but only if you do not have to file a return for another reason, the charge is for the current or previous tax year, and you act on or before 31 January after that tax year. Otherwise through Self Assessment, which has its own deadline: tell HMRC by 5 October.

Why claim if it all goes back anyway?

This is the paragraph the whole guide exists for.

The claim form has a tick box: register, but do not receive the payments. Tick it and no money arrives, so there is no High Income Child Benefit Charge to pay — and the parent named on the claim automatically receives Class 3 National Insurance credits for every week until the child turns twelve.

GOV.UK puts it plainly: a parent or guardian registered for Child Benefit for a child under 12 gets Class 3 credits automatically — "even if you do not receive it".

What that is worth. A full state pension needs 35 qualifying years of contributions; the minimum is 10. A parent at home with a child, paying no contributions from a salary, loses those years permanently without this box ticked. With it, they accrue for doing nothing.

The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week and rises to about £250.70 from April 2027. Each missing year is roughly one thirty-fifth of that, for life. Missing years can be bought back later, and that costs considerably more than ticking a box on time.

Which parent should claim?

The one with the weaker National Insurance record. The credits go to whoever is named on the claim, and unpicking that later is harder than deciding it now.

The practical rule: if one parent works and pays contributions and the other is at home with the child, the claim goes in the name of the parent at home. If it was filed under the wrong name, credits can be transferred between parents — but that is a separate application and more months lost.

If you live together, only one of you can get the higher £27.05 rate, for the eldest child in the household.

How do you claim, and from what date is it paid?

You can claim 48 hours after registering the birth, or as soon as a child comes to live with you. Adopters do not wait for the process to complete: claim as soon as the child moves in.

It is backdated by a maximum of three months. That is the price of delay: claim six months late and three months — roughly £350 for one child — is simply never paid. Nor are those three months of pension credits.

You will need the child's birth certificate (or adoption papers), your National Insurance number, and bank details if you are taking the money.

What changes when the child turns 16?

Payments stop by default on 31 August following the sixteenth birthday. To continue them you must tell HMRC the child is staying in approved education or training: sixth form, college, certain vocational courses.

Do not miss it: HMRC writes to ask, and if you do not reply the payments simply stop. They can be restarted, but again with only three months of backdating.

What should you do today?

First: check the public funds condition on your permission to stay. Until you have checked, do not claim.

Second: if there is no such condition, work out both parents' adjusted net income. Both below £60,000 — claim and take the money. Either above £80,000 — claim with the opt-out ticked, for the pension credits. In between — do the arithmetic; it is often still better to take it and repay part.

Third: decide whose name goes on the claim. The pension credits follow that person.

Fourth: if the child was born a month ago or longer, claim today rather than at the weekend. The three months run back from the claim date.

All the upcoming deadlines, including 5 October for Self Assessment, are in the ONLYWAY calendar.

Read also: The State Pension: 10 years, 35 years and the age of 67 · Free school meals: who qualifies and how to apply