Child benefit: How much is it & how does it work?

Child benefit: How much is it and how does it work?

Child benefit is available to help cover the cost of raising children.

Find out how it works, how much you’ll get, how to claim and what happens if you or your partner earn over £50,000 a year.

How child benefit works

You can claim child benefit if you’re responsible for bringing up a child who is under 16 (or under 20 if they’re in approved education or training). You don’t necessarily need to be the child’s biological parent, you could be their grandparent, adoptive parent, foster parent, older sibling etc.

Only one person can claim the benefit for each child. There’s no limit to how many children you can claim for.

Can I get child benefit?

If you or your partner earn no more than £50,000 a year, you’ll get the full amount of child benefit providing:

the child lives with you
you're paying at least the same weekly amount to look after them as provided in child benefit

How much is child benefit?

For your first or only child, you’ll get: £24 a week.

For each additional child, you’ll get: £15.90 a week.

You’ll usually be paid every four weeks on a Monday or Tuesday. The whole amount must be paid into the same account. Child benefit can’t be split between parents.

You can ask to be paid weekly on the claim form if you’re a single parent or you or your partner get certain other benefits.

Am I entitled to child benefit payments?

If you or your partner earn no more than £50,000 a year, you’ll get the full amount of child benefit providing:

the child lives with you
you're paying at least the same weekly amount to look after them as provided in child benefit

How to claim child benefit

You can claim child benefit online. If this isn’t an option, you can claim by post or by phone.

You can do this as soon as you’ve registered the birth or your child or when a child comes to live with you if, for example, you’re a grandparent or adoptive/foster parent.

illustration of woman on laptop with coins

Does my income affect child benefit?

If you or your partner have an income of over £50,000 a year, it may still be worth claiming child benefit, but you may have to pay some of it back.

For every £100 you receive above £50,000, you’ll have to pay back 1% of the full amount of child benefit you’re entitled to. This means if you have an income of £55,000 a year, you’ll pay back £50%. If your annual income is £60,000 or above, you’ll have to pay back the full amount.

It's important to remember we’re not just talking about your salary here. You could have a salary of over £50,000 and still get the full amount of child benefit. Equally, you may have to pay back some of your child benefit before your salary hits the £50,000 mark. This is because the amount of child benefit you get is based on your ‘adjusted net income’ rather than simply your gross salary.

Your adjusted net income includes all taxable income, such as:

your salary
your profits if you’re self employed
any rental income
some state benefits

Certain things are then deducted to get your adjusted net income, such as:

pension contributions
trading losses
Gift Aid donations

Example:

Stacey earns £51,000 a year, but 5% of her pre-tax salary (£2,550) goes into her work pension scheme. £51,000 minus £2,550 is £48,450, so Stacey is still entitled to her full child benefit payments.

If you’re unsure whether you’re entitled to full payments or not, use the government’s child benefit tax calculator to find out.

What if my income is over £60,000

If you or your partner have an adjusted net income of over £60,000, it may still be a good idea to apply for child benefit, even if you opt out of getting paid (and having to repay) the benefit itself.

This is because:

you’ll get national insurance (NI) credits. You usually need at least 35 years of NI credits to get the full state pension, so this could be really valuable if you’re in a couple and one of you earns less than £123 a week
It should make sure your child gets sent an NI number just before they turn 16

FAQs

You can apply for child benefit at any point before your child is 16 (or 20 if they’re in qualifying full-time education). So, if you didn’t apply when they were born - because you were earning too much, or you just weren’t aware you could make a claim – it's not too late. Just be aware, a claim can only be backdated for a maximum of three months.

The payment amounts are no different for multiple births. That means if you have twins born a few minutes apart, you’ll get £24 a week for the first and £15.90 a week for the second.

If you spend at least the amount of money provided by child benefit on looking after a child, you can make a claim. This doesn’t necessarily mean your child benefit claim will be successful. If someone else makes a claim for the same child, HMRC will decide who gets the money. Generally, it goes to the person the child lives with most.

Child benefit is included in the benefit cap. If you’re close to your limit (this will depend on your situation and where you live), your child benefit may be capped. Not everyone is subject to the benefit cap though.

It is up to the government whether it raises child benefit in line with inflation. The Treasury has confirmed that payments for 2024/25 will rise in line with the September 2023 Consumer Price Index inflation figure of 6.7%.

That means from April 2024, for your first or only child, you’ll receive £25.60 a week and for additional children, you’ll receive £16.95 a week.