Should I have been claiming child benefit all this time?

[cantforthelifeofme]

I have a 4yo and 1yo and I've just happened across an advert saying 'if your child was born during the pandemic you could be eligible for child benefit'.

Looking into it, it seems that I could have been claiming child benefits for the last 4+ years! Neither my husband or I earn £50K.

I had heard of child benefit but assumed it was for jobless/low income etc.

No one has ever mentioned this to us :(

@vickylou78 my 1yo is not in nursery yet and my 4yo only did preschool using the 30 free hours. So we have actually ever paid any child care. But I'll keep it in mind if my youngest ever does 30+ hours of nursery/preschool.

@Mummabear89 ....yeah of course the money is "for the child" but most families I know just put all their money (wages, child benefit, any other incoming money) into one big pot.
I am curious - when you do a food and toiletries shop do you add up anything you buy that's just for your child and once you reach that limit of just over £20 a week stop and say too your kid "sorry no more nappies for you....all your money is gone" 🙄

I think Mummabear was just trying to offer another angle. If you can get by without the extra funds now, to perhaps store the payments away for when the child is gown up.

Youngest was born in 1998, it was called Child Benefit and paid into the bank. IIRC you could request payment in cash at the post office but had to “qualify” in some way for that as it is more expensive to administer.

@HideTheCroissants I had mine in 1998 no reason for me to qualify, you could request post office it was up to the claimant.

I understand the sarcasm from many on here 'child benefit is for children, who knew?' But honestly, can anyone think of a more broken system than the ONLY time new parents are given information on it is during one of the the most stressful 12/24/48 hours of their life - on a hectic maternity ward, in a bag shoved full of other tat they might easily leave behind.

And that's if they give birth in hospital.

And that's if they are actually on a ward in the same place long enough to be caught during the distribution rounds.

And then....nothing.

The birth is registered, government has address data for every child born in the country. But do they send a claim form by post? No.

Do they have a check box to ensure families are actively properly informed and intentionally opting out. No.

Do they at any point in your child's life again make contact with you to check circumstances have not changed and you (women) are not missing out on NI pension credits if they stop working. No.

So be a bit kinder to the OP who wasn't raised in this country. How is anyone honestly supposed to know what they don't know?

It's not like HMRC go out of their way to support new mothers by delivering this information to them in a RELIABLE way. You know, like they do when you owe THEM money. By post. At your own postal address.

Bounty packs are the most unreliable, shonky, travesty of a 'support system' for new mothers imaginable. They've been fined for data harvesting illegal from hospitals, hard selling the photos, and god help you if the rep is just about to jack their job in and that week's 70 packs went straight in the skip at the hospital car park. Or you were discharged quickly. Or gave birth at home.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/12/bounty-fined-400k-sharing-14-million-peoples-data-unlawfully/

The system is a disgrace and HMRC should be held to account and REQUIRED to send forms proactively to every new parent by post. And to backdate more than 3 months for those who weren't captured by the extremely holey net.

And if OP fancies taking this as a test case, I hope there might be some legal support out there to set a precedent to require better of out government, HMRC, and their support for new mothers!

It's no wonder take-up is still too low! obr.uk/box/the-impact-of-the-pandemic-on-child-benefit-take-up/

We should all be joining OP in being outraged that the only way mothers are informed is a dodgy leaflet in a dodgy pack of tat not everyone is given.

How on earth is anyone supposed to know what they don't know if they aren't told in a reliable way?!?

Next campaign, @mumsnet ?

@MeandT - I agree with you about needing more awareness but the OP quickly started mocking benefits, asking whether she could get them for inane things and also deciding it was all her accountant’s fault. At that point she lost my sympathy.

THANK YOU @MeandT !!! 🙏

Hi

If you to to the HMRC website you can sign up and apply for child benefit and you can check you national insurance credit / pension contributions. So each month if you have worked or been on a benefit such as maternity leave, Income Support etc etc you will get a credit towards your pension. You need so many credits over your working life time to be entitled to a full state pension when you retire. Unless you have been a stay at home mum ir unemployed for many years you will be fine 🙂

Maybe people would be kinder to OP if it wasn't obvious this is a benefits bashing thread.

@IhateHermioneGranger I don't think it's a benefits bashing thread at all! I understand some tongue in cheek comments were made in frustration, but come on....

We could all show a bit of solidarity here and actually get something really POSITIVE to come out of this for children in this country.

Why should we accept that a bit of paper in a bag from a commercial company is the best we can do to ensure child benefit reaches every child it should do in this country?

We should put aside the derails and work together to require better of HMRC on this!

@MeandT I 100% agree with you. The way child benefit is (not) publicised is shocking. And quite possibly intentional… I mean it’s not like the government is unable to spend money in getting its message across when it really wants to. And the idea of publicising it through Bounty packs is crazy.

I honestly can’t see how the changes from making child benefit a universal benefit to a means tested one, and then tying women’s NI and pension entitlements to whether it’s claimed or not, got through even the most basic protected characteristics impact assessment.

@MeandT the whole thing about Bounty 'harvesting data' - I got two Bounty Packs but I never had to give any personal details to get them. They were just handed to me (one from Boots, one from the hospital). So I don't know what 'data' of mine they could harvest.

@MeandT Upthread I mentioned the NHS Pregnancy Book and Birth to Five Book that everyone got given. Something said it a download now rather than an actual book..is that true? When did they stop giving out the books. Because all the information about child benefit etc was in there. It was from the Pregnancy book that I learned that (due to my working circumstances). I couldn't get maternity pay but I could claim 6 weeks of Incapacity Benefit when my daughter was born.
This is something that is probably mostly unknown but because I read it in a government provided book I knew I was entitled - so no one could say they "didn't know" - the government (via the NHS) was giving out all the information
Do they not give out these books any more?

Someone not something

@Needmorelego Bounty got enormous fines (£400k) for collecting email data (which was voluntary to give, and not compulsory to get your pack) but then selling it for things the individuals had not approved (mailing lists for everything under the sun, and other unapproved purposes). The Telegraph article was behind a paywall, sorry, details are here: ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/mpns/2614757/bounty-mpn-20190412.pdf

The NHS stopped the hard copy birth-5 books several years ago - since 2013, not exactly sure when. There is definitely more of a digital barrier to accessing the same book online now. I'm sure it's much cheaper not to print it, but sadly also much less likely every mum-to-be accesses it or dips into it as many times.

And again, while posting the forms might have a cost of some half a million quid in stamps, surely it could be added to the process of registering a birth instead - which has to be done in person - and could include a signature to confirm the information has actually been delivered for every child born. As it should be!

It does make sense to provide the information when you register your baby. I can't see why that couldn't happen.

@Thatsnotmycar i stand corrected. This used to be the case but to be fair it was probably over 10 years ago when I was working with people with no recourse to public funds

I did this OP, I suffered with severe PND and anything like this went out of the window until DS was 2. For me it didn’t matter so much in terms of monetary value as we would have opted out of the payment anyway but it was NI credits I missed out on.
I was furious with myself at the time but tbh I was in no fit state and barely putting one foot in front of the other at the time.

frustrating but these things do happen, take it as a lesson learned, apply now and go from there.

@IhateHermioneGranger

Maybe people would be kinder to OP if it wasn't obvious this is a benefits bashing thread.

I hadn't intended to bash benefits or offend anyone at all and I certainly didn't expect this thread to attract this much attention. I'm embarrassed and frustrated that this has happened to my family out of my/DH's naivety but it would be amazing if this thread promoted more awareness and/or systems being changed.

bless you get a claim in!!
I had a similar thing when my son was born, he’s 14 now so a while ago. I lost my job whilst pregnant then when he was born I was literally living off the child benefit and food banks for months because no one told me about tax credits, I assumed that to get tax credits you had to be paying tax, hence the name.
I only realised the mistake because I was literally malnourished in hospital and asking for help because we simply couldn’t survive on £18 a week 😭😭
I absolutely get you!!
mid no one tells you then how are you supposed to know

I feel for you OP, I can't imagine how frustrated you must feel now! When our son was born in 2018 the registrar who registered him did the form for us, she said it was a new thing they do because so many people don't realise they can claim it so they don't!

Huh? All children get it dont they? Seriously? Hospital should have said? I dont know......sorry you have missed out....

Lost any interest or respect for the OP from their nasty snarky comments.

Stealth brag.

Rude.