Child Benefit


Child Benefit is a tax-free payment that is aimed at helping parents cope with the cost of bringing up children. One parent can claim £20.70 a week for an eldest or only child and £13.70 a week for each of their other children. The payments apply to all children aged under 16 and, in some cases, until they are 20-years-old. The current rates are frozen until 2020. 


Until January 2013, the benefit was available to every family with children. Since then the benefit has been steadily withdrawn from families where one parent earns more than £50,000. The benefit received is recouped gradually as the income of the highest earning parent rises above £50,000, with the Child Benefit being eroded completely once their income is £60,000 or more. The changes to the rules reduced the entitlement of around 1.2 million families. 


Any Child Benefit paid to high-earners who do not opt-out is clawed back through the so-called High Income Child Benefit Charge, administered by HMRC. If somebody earning more than £50,000 or their partner keeps claiming Child Benefit, then the higher earner must declare this in a self-assessment tax form.