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Original poster

Should I have been claiming child benefit all this time?

274 replies

cantforthelifeofme · 25/10/2022 14:00

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 :(

OP posts:
Thisgroupneverceasestoamazeme · 26/10/2022 18:47

Just coming on to check you’re aware of the free childcare hours people are entitled to for three and four year olds (and some two year olds) and tax free childcare?

I think child benefit is one of those things that’s assumed to be a ‘given’ here in the UK along with pensions, free healthcare etc. It used to be called ‘family allowance’ I remember we used to get the bus into town to collect it from the building society when I was little. Even children of people with no recourse to public funds are entitled to it. Similarly many don’t claim it because it’s not widely advertised and find out later they’ve missed out on thousands of pounds. Frustrating!

Blackmetalmama · 26/10/2022 19:09

What's this 'bounty pack' that you get from the hospital?

dementedpixie · 26/10/2022 19:16

It was a pack (a bag of stuff) with leaflets and a mini pack of baby wipes and a tiny pot of sudocrem. Also had the child benefit forms

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

1 year olds 4 year olds Benefits Families
dementedpixie · 26/10/2022 19:16

Although my last one was 16 years ago so probably completely different now

dementedpixie · 26/10/2022 19:19

www.bounty.com/about-bounty/bounty-packs/newborn-pack

There are other packs available after the newborn one

twocatsandtwokids · 26/10/2022 19:19

I have a 9 year old and a 6 year old. We’ve never claimed child benefit as my husband earns over the threshold. I found out recently that if I’d claimed for this over the years and he’d paid it back via his tax return I’d have been able to earn NI credits towards my state pension. As it is, over the last 9 years I’ve mainly been at home with the kids or not working enough hours a week to pay NI, so have all these missing years of NI payments 😡😡😡
I’ve missed out on these as I never knew this - and thought the same, why didn’t anyone tell me?! I never received any info about it and feel very bitter!

EugeneLevysEyebrow · 26/10/2022 19:20

This thread is so depressing - the Tories seem to have well and truly succeeded in making a lot of people think of benefits and the benefit system as a negative thing and something that only poor people engage with. Which means they can quietly cut a lot of benefits and a lot of people pay no attention as ‘it doesn’t affect me’. And so perpetuating a them and us mindset.

It’s interesting what’s referred to as a benefit and what isn’t. The state pension is a benefit but is never referred to as such.

dementedpixie · 26/10/2022 19:23

twocatsandtwokids · 26/10/2022 19:19

I have a 9 year old and a 6 year old. We’ve never claimed child benefit as my husband earns over the threshold. I found out recently that if I’d claimed for this over the years and he’d paid it back via his tax return I’d have been able to earn NI credits towards my state pension. As it is, over the last 9 years I’ve mainly been at home with the kids or not working enough hours a week to pay NI, so have all these missing years of NI payments 😡😡😡
I’ve missed out on these as I never knew this - and thought the same, why didn’t anyone tell me?! I never received any info about it and feel very bitter!

You could have claimed it and opted out of payment too and then you'd have got the NI credits without him needing to pay anything back. I hope you have claimed now

twocatsandtwokids · 26/10/2022 19:24

I’m working enough hours now to pay NI, but it’s the 7 or so years in the middle that I’ll never get the credits back for 😢 if only we’d known.

upinaballoon · 26/10/2022 19:26

In my house the State Retirement Pension is always referred to as a 'benefit'. It's a contributory benefit.

linsey2581 · 26/10/2022 19:28

Child benefit is just the new fancy name for family allowance. I had it when my kids were born 02 and 04. Mine just stopped there in September due to my youngest turning 18 in February. When my kids were babies I still had the book that I took to the post office every Tuesday to get stamped and get the money. But it eventually changed to automatic bank transfer.

bettybyebye · 26/10/2022 19:36

@EugeneLevysEyebrow I wish there was a like button for your post. So true 😥

shazshaz · 26/10/2022 19:43

@twocatsandtwokids you can buy back NI credits going back to 2006. The Martin Lewis money saving website has a calculator to work out if this is worthwhile to you.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions/

Original poster
cantforthelifeofme · 26/10/2022 20:23

Thisgroupneverceasestoamazeme · 26/10/2022 18:47

Just coming on to check you’re aware of the free childcare hours people are entitled to for three and four year olds (and some two year olds) and tax free childcare?

I think child benefit is one of those things that’s assumed to be a ‘given’ here in the UK along with pensions, free healthcare etc. It used to be called ‘family allowance’ I remember we used to get the bus into town to collect it from the building society when I was little. Even children of people with no recourse to public funds are entitled to it. Similarly many don’t claim it because it’s not widely advertised and find out later they’ve missed out on thousands of pounds. Frustrating!

Yes thank you @Thisgroupneverceasestoamazeme , I've been very gratefully been using the free childcare hours.

OP posts:
Thisgroupneverceasestoamazeme · 26/10/2022 20:47

That’s good. Glad you’ve accessed them. We adopted our DC so a lot of the info that’s passed on through the midwife/health visitor passed us by so we had to figure a lot of things out for ourselves

Daisymaybe60 · 26/10/2022 20:55

FeedMeSantiago · 25/10/2022 15:51

Everyone with a child should claim child benefit, including high earners.

If your child is under 12 you will get NI credits which count towards your state pension. If you're working and paying NI, you may not need them but worth having them in case your circumstances change. If a family member is caring for your child e.g. whilst you're at work, they may be able to claim Specified Adult Childcare credits if you claim child benefit and don't need your NI Credits.

You can only backdate Child Benefit and the NI credits by 3 months - a friend found this out the hard way.

If either parent earns over £50k you can still claim. You either pay the tax and keep the credits or claim and opt out of the money - that way you avoid the tax but keep the credits.

Your child will also get their NI number at 16 if you claim child benefit. If you don't they won't get an NI number automatically and will need to apply for one.

a friend found this out the hard way.

Yes, so did I. I gave up work before I was 66 and eligible for my state pension, to help out with my grandchildren. I'd heard of the Specified Adult Childcare credits (they're not that well publicised), but my first year's claim was thrown out because my DGS's mum hadn't registered herself as being eligible for Child Benefit even though she didn't claim it.

She didn't realise she had to register - neither did I, as the conditions of the SAC just stated that the child's parent had to be eligible for Child Benefit, which she clearly was. I appealed, but got nowhere - apparently they couldn't possibly have known that she had a child under 12 without her filling in a form to tell them all about it. Beats me how we all used to get it automatically then without having to apply back in the day. Hmm

I appreciate my loss was nothing compared to the significant amounts some parents on here have reported missing out on. The system sucks, imho.

Cakecakecheese · 26/10/2022 20:56

I found out about child benefit by accident, I wasn't told about it by any professional and my hospital doesn't give out Bounty packs. I had to get it backdated as it took me ages to get my baby's birth certificate as there was a registration backlog, couldn't get an appointment for 6 weeks.

DappledThings · 26/10/2022 21:24

Child benefit is just the new fancy name for family allowance
New name? My mum was calling it child benefit in the early 80s when you had to go and collect it from the post office.

dementedpixie · 26/10/2022 21:34

DappledThings · 26/10/2022 21:24

Child benefit is just the new fancy name for family allowance
New name? My mum was calling it child benefit in the early 80s when you had to go and collect it from the post office.

It was family allowance when I was a child (born in 1973). I remember getting sent up to the local post office with the book to collect it sometimes.

celticprincess · 26/10/2022 22:07

We were given the form to fill in at the registrar when we registered the birth.

I’d also maybe do a benefits checker and see if you’re entitled to anything else.

I recall when I was a child my mum would go weekly to the post office to collect her child benefit. She had a little book. Some weeks she would save it and collect at the end of the month. Both my parents worked full time in professional careers. It’s only more recently it’s been means tested.

LadyGaGasPokerFace · 26/10/2022 22:20

My dm knew about CB (family allowance) she didn’t speak English at all when we were babies. I’m now 46. I know of lots of countries that have CB, so it’s not exclusive to the Uk.

caramac04 · 26/10/2022 22:44

Elbo7 · 25/10/2022 14:10

This may have changed since I had mine (youngest now 6) but it was important to do the child benefit claim as it counts toward for national insurance credits, especially if you are not currently earning

Yes it’s called home responsibilities protection so counts towards your pension.

Testina · 26/10/2022 22:50

linsey2581 · 26/10/2022 19:28

Child benefit is just the new fancy name for family allowance. I had it when my kids were born 02 and 04. Mine just stopped there in September due to my youngest turning 18 in February. When my kids were babies I still had the book that I took to the post office every Tuesday to get stamped and get the money. But it eventually changed to automatic bank transfer.

New fancy name 🤣
When you say your babies were born in 02 and 04, did you mean 1902/04?

It’s been child benefit since the late 70s - over 20 years before your kids were born.

I guess compared to dinosaurs it’s new 🤷🏻‍♀️
Still not fancy though 🦖

Needmorelego · 26/10/2022 23:16

@Testina it was called 'Family Allowance' when my mum got it for me and my sister (70s/80s/90s).

Needmorelego · 26/10/2022 23:23

@Testina actually I stand corrected. The name 'child benefit' was introduced late 70s. My mum would have started receiving it when it was still called Family Allowance so she probably just called it that. A lot of people probably just did the same. I still hear people refer to getting their 'giro' 😕