The financial support will increase to £26.05 per week for the parent’s eldest or only child and £17.25 per week for any more children.
This is a marginal rise on the current £25.60 payment parents can claim for a child, with the new yearly payment coming to £1,354.60. For any additional children, that level decreases to £897 per year.
The Government benefit is automatically paid into your nominated bank account every four weeks, and there is no limit on how many can be claimed for. As the payment days fall on a Monday or Tuesday, parents will receive the money on Thursday 17 April, so as not to clash with the Easter bank holiday on Monday 21 April.
This means the cash will have to last a few days longer than usual until May’s payment date. To be eligible for the payment, you have to be responsible for raising a child who is aged under 16 years old or under 20 if they are in approved education or training.
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Approved education includes:
- A-levels or similar (like an International Baccalaureate)
- T Levels
- Scottish Highers
- NVQs and most vocational qualifications up to level 3
- Home education – if it started either before your child turned 16 or after 16 if they have a statement of special educational needs
- Study programmes in England
- A pre-apprenticeship
If your child is taking on any of those courses, you need to contact HMRC and submit an application to it.
Education not considered for Child Benefit includes a university degree or an apprenticeship. Any training courses your child is undertaking should be unpaid for them to be eligible for the support.
Separation and high-income benefit charge
If you are separated from your partner and live with your child, only one claim can be made.
This is paid to the main carer of the child and this does not need to be the parent of the child either; if both partners wish to make a claim, HMRC will decide who the benefit goes to.
In terms of earnings, if either partner has an individual income of £60,000-80,000, there will be a High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), which means the parent will have to pay back some of the benefit.
The policy has been widely criticised, as a household with two guardians earning just under £60,000 would still be eligible for the support, but one single-parent household earning more than £60,000 would be hit with the charge.
It means for every £200 earned above £60,000, 1% of the benefit must be repaid to HMRC.
Despite widespread calls for the charge to be scrapped, Labour opted to keep the policy in the Autumn Budget last year.
Apply through the app
To increase the uptake of the cash boost, HMRC has urged new parents to make a claim as soon as they can once their baby is born, as claims can only be backdated for up to three months.
It noted the quickest way to do so was through the HMRC app or online, which over a million parents have done since its launch in 2023.
For parents to make a claim, you need to create an online HMRC account and provide:
- Child’s birth or adoption certificate
- Bank details
- National Insurance number for themselves and their partner, if they have one
- Child’s original birth or adoption certificate and passport, or travel document for children born outside the UK
