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 :(

It’s not your accountant’s job to inform you of the right to claim Child Benefit. They only need to know if you are claiming it and you earn over £50k. If you are employed and self employed you will likely be paying National Insurance anyway. Check their letters. I often write things to clients they ignore then get all arsey when it turns out to be relevant. If you haven’t been paying any National Insurance and they haven’t mentioned the need for credits then speak to them.

OP I am in a similar position where I only just found out we qualified for tax free childcare (a 20% contribution from the gov). I only just realised as I began to research the 30 funded hours as my little one will qualify soon, as I realised I have been entitled to this for over 2 years and can’t claim retrospectively, so we have lost out on thousands and really skinned ourselves on childcare. I mentioned it to our nursery and they said they were surprised I wasn’t aware of it ????

Iirc, they will only backdate it 3 months max, and you have to request it specifically.

I can see how someone not familiar with the system could confuse it with Child Tax Credits or benefits for people who aren't working. But yes, everyone with children is entitled to claim it - high earners must declare it on their tax return and pay it back though (don't get me started on the stupidity of one parent earns > the threshold = not entitled to keep it, but two parents earning just under the threshold each get to keep it!).

The National Insurance Credit part of it means that if you are a SAHP of a child under 12, you get NI credits for each year that count towards State Pension eligibility. So you can claim it, have to repay it due to partner's high earnings, but you still get the NI Credit as you have "Home Responsibilities" (ie SAHP). This could mean the difference between getting a full State Pension or not, when the time comes.

Everybody who has ever been a SAHP should check that their NI record is correct on the Government Gateway. I know a couple of people who weren't getting the credits they were supposed to when claiming Child Benefit, it can be corrected fairly easily if spotted.

@cantforthelifeofme it only needs to go on your tax return if one of you earns over £50k so unless that's the case that will be why your accountant hasn't mentioned it.

@Mapleapple and any other accountants here ; sorry it was more of a figure of speech especially as I'm pretty annoyed right now. I'm not going to write a nasty letter. I'm not that sort of person.

It'll be more like calmly asking if there's anything else they think we should be claiming etc... because we missed the boat with this one etc.

Oh no! 😢

What else is out there, everyone?

Can I get money for having a cat? Owning a house? Having my breakfast this morning?

Shame you can't get money for being an idiot. What a childish response.

@cantforthelifeofme - they won’t know. We aren’t benefit specialists. You need to use a website like Entitled To or Turn2Us. I would also Google tax free childcare as well.

Ah I see. Ok.

Neither of us earn £50k

Sorry if this has been mentioned already, you can claim it until your child is 16, then they will send you out forms to confirm if your child is staying in full time education or not, if they are you can continue to receive it.

I half think this is a benefits bashing thread honestly. Weird mixture of taking no personal responsibility and mocking benefit entitlement.

I agree

I'm really sorry if I offended anyone's thoughts my unfunny 'joking around'. It just baffles me that i could have got £5k these last four years just for making my family.

Taking no responsibility?

I don’t believe this one bit!

Well as you've found out, claiming isn't compulsory.

The reason they are mentioning it is because for children born in the pandemic, there was no ‘bounty lady’ they would give you the forms.

Claim it and if you are getting by fine then pay it into junior ISAs for your kids to have nice little nest eggs when they turn 18

Ok thanks to everyone for your helpful responses but this thread is taking a turn in a direction that is unhelpful and accusing me of winding people up for the sake of it.

I'm going to make some phone calls now to sort this out.

Why ask us when you've looked into the week eligibility criteria and have seen you are eligible 🤷🏻‍♀️

It seemed too good to be true. That's all.

Maybe some of the pp's think I shouldn't claim, because I don't need it? I don't know.

That's a really great idea. Thank you.

You still got Bounty Packs with the forms in. Lots of trusts got rid of the annoying Bounty women long before covid.

I am surprised your husband didn't mention it nor any of his family
It has only been means tested for maybe 15 years.
When your dh was growing up he surely would have been aware of it ...

It was formerly (before 1980s) known as Family Allowance and paid by default to the mother.