To remind you there is no cap on child benefit

[TheOneWithUnagi]

I see multiple threads believing that there is a 2 child cap on child benefit - there is no limit on the number of children you can claim child benefit for
I also listened to a whole LBC phone in last week where the host advocated the same thing.

The cap relates to the child element of UC and TC only. If you are eligible to claim child benefit for your first 2 children you can claim for any subsequent children as well.

This is from gov.uk

www.gov.uk/child-benefit

"There’s no limit to how many children you can claim for."

So many posts on this on threads get it so wrong, banging on about actual child benefit when they mean universal credit/tax credit cap. I think the government and media need to change how they talk about it. Like ‘universal credit child cap’ or something.

Well I did not know that - thanks OP x

Yup! I claim child benefit for all 3 of mine!

Yep and it doesn't help the debate - UC should be a safety net and could be needed by anyone if circumstances drastically change.
I doubt anyone has a third child to get an extra £16 a week.

I know I have seen so many posters asking why people would have more children for the added child benefit
Not understanding that tax/ universal credit is significantly more than child benefit.

I thought I was relatively clued up but I didn't realise this. Thank you!

I've corrected people in real life about this too. It is confusing how it's talked about.

I didn't know this until now. That's interesting and definitely totally misinterpreted in the media.

I didn’t realise that and I am fairly well informed (although not eligible for child benefit for my 3 children!)

So many people get this wrong and I was given wrong advice. thank god Iooked into it myself and made a claim xx

^ Yep and it doesn't help the debate - UC should be a safety net and could be needed by anyone if circumstances drastically change.
I doubt anyone has a third child to get an extra £16 a week.^

Maybe some do, or did. 12 years ago when DC2 was a baby, the mum of a child in ds's nursery class was having her 5th child and was excited (no irony) about "extra cash for doing nowt but shagging". And there was me working out that we could get by for a few years with 2 in nursery for 3 days a week.

You can also claim childcare for more than 2 children people also don't know this.

I know. I had to double check I'd not missed a policy change or something.
Child benefit has an earnings threshold, but no limit to children.

Yes but again we are talking about different things. Child benefit is £16 per week.

That person was probably talking about the child element of UC/tax credits which does have a 2 child cap. I also don't think children should be in poverty as a result of their parents choices but that isn't the purpose of this thread

I was listening to something on the news about this last week and even the journalist got it wrong going on about child benefit cap. Awful !

Thank you. I’ve been saying this on every thread about the cap. The terminology is aggravating and misleading and the amounts in question are hugely different. If it was £16 a week the total wouldn’t be over £3billion!

Another one here who thought they were relatively clued up on this sort of thing, but had no idea it didn’t refer to child benefit!

Shocking level of misreporting on this. I wonder how many people are not claiming something they are eligible for.

James O’Brien did a whole phone in last week and not a single caller corrected him, they were all talking about how child benefit helped them. I texted but it didn’t get read out - maybe I should have called! He was saying “for the first child you get £26 and the maximum you can get is £42 a week.
There must be so many people not claiming who can.

It's like the electricity/gas 'cap' where some people thought that the cap was the maximum they would pay no matter how much power they used. Took months for the media to start reporting this properly.

Exactly. People talking about a few pounds a week when actually paying out the child element of UC is an extra almost £300 a month. Big difference !

I think it’s really important to clarify in the media due to the implications for national insurance contributions. When you claim child benefit you automatically get your national insurance covered towards your pensions until the child is 12. This obviously impacts many women who may not work fulltime while their children are young.

It worries me that so many women don’t know this and may not be claiming child benefit for all their children. Their pensions will be wrong

Yes there must be people who think they can't claim it and can but also people are probably thinking why are the government being so stingy about not paying an extra £17 a week for a third child not realizing that it's the child element of tax credit or UC which actually is around £277 extra a month which is a big difference, especially if families are having four or five kids that could be up to an extra £900 a month on someone's UC ? People need to know understand figures that the debate is about. The government will already pay childcare costs and disability elements for unlimited children ( and rightly so), I actually don't think it's unreasonable to say no to unlimited child elements. Appreciate this thread is not a debate though .makes me wonder if all these Labour politicians calling for the cap to be lifted actually understand the sums involved or are they thinking it's just an extra £17 a week?

I have always wondered this.

Surely nobody would have extra kids for £20 a week. But also, if you can’t afford your third because you’re not getting that £20 a week, you really cannot afford that third regardless.

Exactly it's nearly £300 extra UC for a third child plus child benefit so around £370 a month plus potentially extra bedroom entitlement on rent element