Tax credits

[Chugalug]

Do you still get tax credits and child benefit if you home educate?

For children who are at or below Compulsory School Age, education has no bearing on eligibility for benefits. So that continues automatically until the end of Y11.

Beyond that, you can only claim for home educated young people if the home education began before their 16th birthday. Like everyone else, they must meet the criteria of being a "young person continuing in full-time education". For example, the education must be non-advanced, i.e. not university level, and there is a limit to the number of hours of part-time work they can do alongside it. In the spring of Y11, you'll be asked whether your child will be continuing in education and there is a short form to fill in. Submitting the short form triggers a more detailed form to be sent out about their course of study. If/when you are completing that form, post here or on another HE forum for advice. It isn't clear how some questions apply to HE and it is much better to fill the form in correctly than to have your claim rejected and go through appeal!