Can you claim child benefit if you live abroad

[Hiphopfrogger]

A friend of mine lives abroad, and has done for around 15 years. She now has a DD (she came back to the UK for the birth and stayed with her parents so the DD has a UK passport ). But it seems she’s claiming child benefit. Can you do that from abroad? She’s never worked or paid tax in this country and nor has the DDs father. Is that fraud or is it ok? Googling doesn’t seem to help!

My DD and family live in Thailand after 5 years in Beijing where GDDs were born they are not entitled to CB but as they get free private education , health care, accommodation and flights then they are better served. My DD and her DH do pay voluntary NI towards any state pension in the future.

How odd. We cancelled our CB in the UK before we moved. Current country wanted to know whether we are getting any from abroad, which we obviously don't. We get CB in the EU country we live in now. To be fair, it's double what we got in the UK, so not sure why anyone would stick to the UK one.

You cannot claim if you are resident abroad.

Just to clarify, you can claim CB legitimately from the UK if you live in the EU. I dont know about countries outside the EU

source? afaic you claim CB in that case on the EU country you reside in. not from the UK.

But as UK taxpayers, isn’t it everyone’s business to make sure it’s not abused?

People like this grind my gears!!
I agree. I know a family where the dad works and earns just under £60K. They have three kids, 1 older and then had twins. She had to stop work as couldn't afford nursery for all three. They then lost almost all child benefits. They live in Kent, and after paying their mortgage and his commuting costs to London, they don't have a lot left to play with.

Taking it away from them but paying someone who'se never paid tax in this country is very wrong. They wouldn't be entitled to free NHS treatment, so why would they be entitled to child benefit?

Seems to be huge confusion here, some say you can claim if living abroad but in the Eu, some say you can’t 🤷‍♀️
I’m within the Eu but have paid tax and ni etc in Britain and the country I reside in now.
I can’t claim cb here as my dp earns over the threshold, which isn’t hard to do as it’s so low! He doesn’t earn a huge amount either..even if we did qualify, it’s only around €18 a month, so not much use..but I can’t claim in uk when I’ve spent many many contributing to both countries..

*Many many years

We did, but with the caveat that dh was HM Forces, and I could choose to have the CB paid locally, which was more dosh, but no NICs; or UK CB with NICs. I chose the latter for obvious reasons.

@Pitterpatterpettysteps do you mean avoidance. Large companies don’t evade these days, they’ve realised it’s not worth it. Since the whole google/Starbucks thing many refuse to even engage in avoidance anymore.

If she's in another EU country then she could when I was an expat 15 years ago but I suspect that she's using the grandparents address.

My ex and I are UK citizens. When we were resident in Germany we could claim UK or German Child benefit. We claimed the latter because it was a higher amount and we got massively subsidised childcare as a result but we could claim the former. (Not army or diplomats btw) You don't need to have paid tax to claim (think about teen parents for instance)

So, as I thought, from cittigirl's link, you can, in very exceptional circumstances claim CB as BC resident abroad.
Unless you're in Crown Service, or paying NI AND in one of those few countries mentioned, you can't.
Nor can your children get free opticians etc.
I am in Italy, work in UK for 3 months and pay a full year NI. Can't claim (never crossed my mind I could tbf) nor can I in Italy. I tend to get dd's eyes tested in the UK because I love Specsavers, but I told them I live in Italy and so I pay.

You cannot claim UK child benefit if you move abroad unless you are a civil servant, military or similar posted abroad on official business. So if she is claiming she is doing so fraudulently. She must have supplied a UK address and the money must be being paid into a UK bank account otherwise Child Benefit authorities would have flagged this.

We are UK tax payers with UK DC at school in UK but are not entitled to CB because we (the parents) live outside UK.

Do you all not know that we pay CB etc to European citizens living at home, with one Parent working in the UK?
I knew this but these are children whose parent is paying UK taxes so I can't get exercised about it.
The OP's frIend however is not.

As people have pointed out, there are ways that make this perfectly possible, so, unless you're thoroughly familiar with her HMRC dealings, stop being such a Petunia Dursley about it.

@swingofthings, who isn't entitled to free NHS treatment? Thr family can return and get treatment.

The thing we don't check those who come to the UK and don't 'have recourse to public funds', to see if they are paying tax. Mant people don't pay tax, because they aren't forced to declare their earnings, or checked up on.

Later on when they are ill, disabled, pregnant, with young children, the recourse is granted, but no one goes into what they've been living on.

There are ways that make it possible, sure...for example, I was in the UK temporarily when tax credits came in. Filled in an online questionnaire and started getting "it seems you are entitled to..." Thought nothing more of it till my mum rang and said you have a letter. Saying I was entitled to TC and they'd start paying me forthwith. By this point I'm back in Italy. It took two years for me to convince them to stop paying me £125 a week!
It's possible. Any law breaking and fraud is possible. Doesn't make it right.

The point about teenage mums is a good one, but I suppose the point is they are living in this country and will likely contribute in the future, as will their children. However, if you don’t live here and never intend to contribute, surely that’s different?

Report her anyway for benefit fraud. Let the authorities investigate.

Depends if she's paying any uk tax I'd have thought?

As another person mentioned also, we moved to Australia and gave notice we had moved. Received a letter advising as we were no longer residents, an obviously nor was our child, we were no longer entitled to CB. No grey area about it.

Report her anyway for benefit fraud. Let the authorities investigate.

This.

There's already been one moron telling OP to mind her own business and that it's nothing to do with her.

It's a common reaction on MN and I expect those who post such things are those who don't contribute themselves.

'Free money, innit!'

If she's doing something illegal she will be caught

How, exactly? Some illegal acts are caught directly by the various parts of the system, some as a result of members of the public reporting them, others are never detected. I’m pretty sure that if she gave a UK address when she made her claim, and it’s paid into a UK bank account, it’s highly unlikely the authorities would investigate just on the off chance.

As PP said - report her, and the authorities may investigate. If it’s legitimate, there’s no problem, is there?

What she is doing is completely legal.

However I don't think it's morally right. Yeah we wouldn't save a lot of money by not providing it, but it would house a few homeless people in our own country. Better than none.

@Ponoka7, you are wrong. Being British doesn't entitle you to nhs treatment, not being registered to a gp. If your resident address is abroad, you'll have to pay. If you live in Europe, until now, by showing your ehic card, you are exempt from paying and the nhs will get the money back from the country you are resident of. If you live outside of the EU, you will be liable for full costs, British passport or not.

And you are very wrong to think that people can come to the UK for treatment and not be checked. You'd be amazed at the flags that hint to someone likely not to be entitled to nhs treatment and they will be ask for evidence of residency in this country.