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 :(

My dd didn't realise they could get child benefit.
Fortunately I asked her about a month after dgc was born if she had sent her form in.
She then found said form in her Bounty pack.

It's easy to miss I suppose if you're a new parent and sleep deprived.

@prescribingmum Unfortunately the NI credits can't be reclaimed. I think legislation is needed to correct this as many high earners are not putting in a child benefit claim and so missing out on NI credits.

Please tell me you knew about this and have been claiming

From what i have heard (I don't live in the UK) you should always put in the claim for CB even if you don't get any payments because (especially if you take time out of the workforce) it counts towards your state pension. And with that, you need every scrap of it you can get.

If you're working then it makes no difference.

If you're a high earner, you don't need NI credits; you already have them from working. The NI credits from child benefit are only of any use if you are otherwise not working or hardly working.

@AquaticSewingMachine I should have said high earning families where one partner is a SAHP or low earner.

Im sure there was a leaflet with a link in the bag of sh*t/advertising (cant remember the name) that I was given at the hospital

@AquaticSewingMachine - it also depends on your income. If for example you own your own company and only take dividends, you don’t pay NI on dividends. But then you probably don’t care about the state pension too much.

Your accountant should've picked this up when filling in your SE because it's related to not only your income/ salary but also your dh's.

You really need to make sure you’re up to date with the necessary financial information pertaining to the country you now live in. It’s really astonishing that you haven’t, did you not get given forms in the hospital? Everyone gets them so you can claim it asap.

You used to get a leaflet in bounty pack. I can see how it was overlooked in Covid if you aren’t British. It’s something everyone used to be entitled to until fairly recent tinkering - idea was every mother would have access to some money even if husband abusive. I remember going to post office with my mum for ours.

It's not a UK thing. I don't know where you're from, but lots of countries give you money to have kids.

I never claimed it because DH earned more than a threshold and apparently we would need to return it back? Although both naturalised citizens, we were not born in the uk and know nothing about the child benefit. Our children are almost secondary school age. Is it worth claiming it still? No one ever informed us.

I’ve only just found out about marriage allowance however, we don’t qualify.

Definitely fill in the form! We aren’t eligible so I didn’t apply, and 3 years later I found out that I should have filled in the child benefit form to protect my state pension rights? Wtf? It should be called the child benefit and pension protection form 🤬

Given how confusing they made the rules they should backdate it properly but ha no chance.

@pumpkinelvis - accountants are not benefit advisors. I would wager the accountant said somewhere tell us if you are claiming child benefit. It’s not their responsibility to advise OP on entitlement to state benefits other than where by claiming them they affect the OP’s tax liability.

@Unseelie
same situation here. Makes me really cross that such an important thing is not advertised enough. It’s NOT a common knowledge at all, not for me. No one gave the form to me, no one mentioned during any of the appointments.

Definitely claim it. It contributes towards your National Insurance years as far as I know.

@Iknowforsure1 - are you yourself working or claiming any benefits? If not it is likely worth a claim to get national insurance credits towards the state pension. You can view a copy of your NI record by signing up for a government gateway account. This will let you know how many years of NI credits you have and what you can do to make up for any gaps.

It probably isn’t discussed at baby groups as it just is a known thing - same way you know you need to register baby. Not every family is eligible now which can cause bad feeling so 2 on 49,000 get it, one on 60,000 with a sahm doesn’t. I wouldn’t be bragging I got it in scenario one knowing how unfair it was. Some families just pay it into savings for kids.

You only need pension protection if you aren’t working. If you go back after maternity leave as most parents do then you get pension credits in normal way as you pay NI.

It's nothing to do with COVID. How did you not know you could claim child benefit?

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

So snobby!

Well, I'm sure you won't miss what you didn't have.

Thank you @Mapleapple
I was a SAHM for many years and I know I missed out on contributions due to not claiming during my DAHM years. I am now employed full time for several years. I tried to sign up to see my account so many times but as it appears “they cannot verify my identity” as the information “does not match their records”. I don’t know what wrong with the records, my DOB, NIN, address are all correct. Don’t know who to contact next… I’d be willing to pay some voluntary contributions to close the gap a bit.

You don’t ‘get money for having. Children’ the idea is you pay into the system and the system supports the raising of your children. Phrases like this play into the ‘benefit scrounger’ mentality. Not helpful (or funny if that’s what you were going for).