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 :(

Well don’t claim then if you’re above it all. Goodness me, you sound a bit thick - either that or you’re winding us up.

Child benefit is one of the most widely known about benefits. They always used to put a claim form in the Bounty packs on the maternity wards also.

@Dagnabit I don't think I'm above it all.

It's quite ironic that it seems to be a Mumsnet 'thing' to hate Bounty reps and Health Visitors with a passion and refuse to hay anything to do with them - but then complain about "not being told stuff".
(Not saying this is you specifically @cantforthelifeofme ).

Bounty reps shouldn't be allowed to be the ones giving out government forms. They're a private company there to advertise and harvest data and they harass vulnerable women. I have absolutely no idea why they're allowed to do this. I'm glad some hospitals are starting to ban them.

Wouldn't it make much more sense for the registrar to have a stack of child benefit forms ready for when you go to register your child.

I don't know what they do now, but I thought it was well known.

I've never seen a Bounty rep in a midwife unit/maternity ward. Is it a UK wide thing?

I agree.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but you need to talk to your accountant about which classes of National Insurance you've been paying. You need a certain amount of Qualifying Years over your lifetime to get the State Pension. Unless anything has changed, a Qualifying Year is one where NI was paid for all 52 weeks of the financial year. Your Child Benefit will count for this from now on, but the amount of Qualifying Years you need for a full State Pension is more than 18. So you need to have paid some Qualifying Years out of your employment years when you didn't have the Child Benefit.

Employees: full time will have been paying NI from their wages, part time it depends how much you earned per week whether you paid it or not. So you could have some Qualifying Years from this.

Self employed compulsory NI is Class 1 but this doesn't qualify you for State Pension, you need to be paying additional Class 3 NI contributions for that.

If you need/want to, you used to be able to backdate your NI contributions for upto 5 years, check with HMRC if this is still the case if you're interested. Backdated NI contributions means you pay them as a lump sum to HMRC so you can get those years as Qualifying Years towards State Pension. Whether you need/want to do this depends on how old you are and whether you have enough years left to pay NI during or receive Child Benefit during before you retire.

You can get a Pension Forecast from somewhere so you can see how many Qualifying Years you've already got and whether, with your current working circumstances, you're on track for a full State Pension or not.

FYI, NI isn't only for State Pension it pays towards all the stuff society needs schools, NHS, welfare benefits etc that's why working people pay it. Having NI contributions also qualifies you for other benefits sometimes, that's why there's contribution-related benefits and income-related benefits, if you fall on hard times there's two chances to qualify.

I actually don't remember seeing a Bounty rep.
I got two Bounty Packs. One I collected from Boots with a voucher the midwife gave me from a pack of information I was given on my first midwife appointment. The second was given to me by a midwife when we left the hospital after baby was born.
I remember a photo company coming round - they were mostly promoting have passport photos done. I live in an area with many people originally from other countries so passports for their babies are needed.
I had no need for passport photos so just said "no thanks".

Mocking benefit entitlement?

I'm not one who sits on my computer looking for what I can next claim from the taxpayer.

Wow.

The forms are also - or were - provided by the registry office. Because that's where I got mine. I think the post office used to have them too.

Omg I can't believe I've lost out on all this money. Why is this not mentioned by registration office? My accountant? Or even a passing comment from a midwife when pregnant?

Benefits aren't generally mentioned by people in authority. Someone diagnosed with a disability and very obviously having struggles won't be told by the doctor about the existence of disability benefits either. Homeless people don't know where foodbanks are or how to get help, they're not told on the day of eviction. People have to seek this and other information out for themselves unless they happen to come across something/someone that tells them, like you have. Before the internet it was even harder to know these things existed.

Lol nice try but we the taxpayer has a statutory responsibility to make sure their tax return is correct. It’s nothing to do with accountants passing liability. We are literally not able to take on the liability.

>taxpayer has a statutory responsibility to make sure their tax return is correct

Yes - so remind me what the accountant actually does if not offering advice or assuring the return is correct?

(i may be biased given that one of the big boys did my accounts after a period working abroad - completely stuffing them up, ignoring the details i'd provided, left submission beyond the date where hmrc would do the calculation - took me 3 years to get numbers back in order - not even an apology. )

Check the government site for what you are entitled to- its pretty clear and comprehensive.
child benefit is a weird one as it was historically universal- but now has changed- i believe the claw back mechanism (paid to the main carer clawed back from the higher tax payer) is designed to stop the situation described by a PP that a rich man doesn't give his wife money- not sure if it works though.
I assume your accountant does your business accounts/tax returns-realises that you don't have enough income for him to have to care about child benefit so doesn't need to ask...but it is still your responsibility to check what your accountant does- if he missed something and as a result you got your tax return wrong- its still your fault

It's not peanuts. Op had missed out on 4 years for dc1 so that's quite a lot. Approx £4.5k.
£21.80 a week for your first child and £14.45 a second child. I think I used to get just under £150 per month.
All she can do now is claim.

Ours do. They actually give you the form.

Of course it is 🤥.

I bet you need it more than most but want to feel superior. If you don't need it which your wage clearly states you do otherwise you wouldn't be entitled to it. Hand it back? 😊.

Yeah it is about £145 a month for two children.

It’s not about shirking professional responsibility it is that only you know all your sources of income and gains. The accountant can’t have a statutory responsibility to ensure that all income and gains are included on a return when we have no idea unless you tell us. In my firm we send out long lists of everything that might possibly need to be included but we can’t capture everything ever.

If an accountant stuffs it up when you have provided everything you should, of course you should have recourse against them, even sue them if you’ve lost out due to their error. In your case I would have expected them to rectify it quickly, and pay any penalties and interest. Not any additional tax due though as this would have always been due even without the error. One bad experience doesn’t mean we are all charlatans.

So you heard about it but assumed it was for low income, not just because no one never ever mentioned! If you received the bounty pack in hospital it was 100% there but maybe you tought you did not need it.

The other important reason to claim Child Benefit is that later on - when your child is no longer of compulsory school age you might need it as proof of eligibility for other benefits.
Potentially for NHS costs for 16+ year olds under some circumstances, and if by some misfortune your circumstances change at that point it is proof of eligibility for other benefits - such as Universal credit and housing benefit.

In the days of child tax credits the form.was in my bounty pack but not in my friends at a different hospital. Luckily we made her aware of without too much delay, it was a substantial amount for the first year too

Yes