Do I need to claim child benefit?

[voxnihili]

I've been trying to find out the answer to this but can't find it anywhere - probably because I don't really know what I should be googling so thought someone here might know.

DP and I don't qualify for child benefit. I'm currently on maternity leave but will return to work full time next year. I am paying into my workplace pension.

I keep seeing that we can claim child benefit but pay it back through tax. What is the advantage of this? Is it to do with my NI contributions? Does this matter if I'm going back to work?

If anyone knows the answers or could direct me to the right website I'd be very grateful. It seems a lot of paperwork if there's no point to it!

Thanks

You can put through the claim form but not take the money (there's a box to tick for this option). This protects your NI. Also gives you a child benefit number which can be useful for things which need the child's prof of ID

You can claim but opt out of payment. This protects NI credits and also means your child gets their NI number automatically when they are 16. Does your dp earn over £60k as that's when you would pay it all back if you took the money.

If you register without claiming money your child will also automatically get a National Insurance number when they turn 16.

If you are going to get 35 years of NI contributions due to working (there is a lower amount so very part time work might not count) then there's probably no point claiming, although remember that it's £60k after pension contributions, so you need to be quite a bit above £60k to qualify for nothing.