Didn’t know about child benefit!

[Amyloumummy]

Hi,

I’ve just found out about child benefit and my daughter is 5!! I’ve missed out on thousands of pounds! I’m wondering how everyone knows about this - should I have been sent a letter when my daughter was born or something? Is it just general knowledge? Really confused how I seem to be the only one not to know about this!

Thanks!

It's just general knowledge, well it was for me anyway. Plus we were told about it in hospital and were given the forms in our Bounty pack.

Im pretty sure you do get info, maybe when you register the birth

Bounty pack

I think it's just general knowledge, but I also do recall getting some info about it when we registered the birth. Sorry you've missed out!

You also get your national insurance paid towards your state pension if you’re not working, can you see if they can back date it just for the National Insurance payments?

The forms allow back dating of 3 months - I’ve just applied. You might be able to claim something back for national insurance - worth asking anyway.

But the HV, midwives (bounty pack) and birth registration all told me about it - I just couldn’t face the easy paperwork.

You might not have qualified (if your salary is above a certain threshold) - fingers crossed?

And you certainly haven't missed out on "thousands of pounds" for 1 child in 5 years if only!

I was given one in a little pack at the hospital when DS was born.

I don't think you're the only one to not know about this OP, I just assumed we wouldn't qualify for any government help, if I hadn't been physically given a form, I probably wouldn't have claimed either.

When you were on maternity leave, did you apply for marriage tax allowance? You might be able to get a nice cheque from that to compensate for you missing out on the child benefit

She has Sansa, several thousands of pounds over the years.

And you certainly haven't missed out on "thousands of pounds" for 1 child in 5 years grin if only!

Ummm £80x12x5= £4800. That looks like thousands to me!

Actually £20x52x5= £5200. It's quite a sum.

Is does you or your partner earn over £60k? If so you wouldn't get the cash.

General knowledge
Bounty Pack
Midwives
Health visitor

@SansaClegane yes she has. Child benenfit is around £1000 a year.

Not knowing about a benefit is not enough to convince them to backdate it more than 3 months. Good luck sorting it out though!

To add to lazy's list, I'm sure the registrar told us about it when we registered our dc, I think in terms of how many copies of the birth certificate you might want.

It's on your green notes. If you read them. In the information bit post birth eg buy a car seat, register birth etc

We had a letter and application form in the bounty pack we were given in the hospital after birth

We got a form during discharge from hospital I believe, and were told you have to register/apply for it even if you don’t qualify for it (we don’t). We hadn’t realised this so had to register for our 2 year old too! Not sure the reason for that, DH sorted it.

Sympathies OP. I did know about it but had checked the earnings threshold and we earned too much to get anything. Luckily saw a mn thread and found out about the NI credits otherwise I wouldn't have claimed.

I was given the form at the hospital certifying the date of the birth to send off (think it was a pink form then)

But if one of you earns over £60k remember you will be taxed so the net amount is zero (so don't bother in other words)

But if one of you earns over £60k remember you will be taxed so the net amount is zero (so don't bother in other words)

Yes, DO bother! Otherwise you don't get NI credits towards your eventual State pension. It's claiming Child Benefit that triggers the NI credits, even if your household income is so high that you don't get the actual money.

As others have said not only have you missed out on child benefit but also the NI credits which are important for state pension eligibility. Of course if you work and pay NI you will get credits for that. Not sure how anyone could miss claiming for child benefit. It is not a new thing.

No unfortunately I don’t earn over the threshold!

Wow, I’ve just had our 2nd child and I haven’t been told about it this time either! He’s 8 weeks old so I’m sure health visitors and midwives would have told us by now. We weren’t told when we registered his birth this time or with my first. I don’t remember seeing anything in the bounty pack but I’ll take another look, maybe I missed it. I’ve read parts of the green notes recently and haven’t seen anything - but there’s a lot of info in there so maybe I missed it.

We’re not married (although been together 19 years) so I guess the married tax allowance is out. Is there anything else I’m missing out on?

Also really annoyed that our accountant who we’ve been with about 10 years never mentioned it (we have a small business).

I’m so gutted about this! Thanks for sympathising ladies, we could have really done with that money! Think I’ll mention it to the health visitor that they could do with making a point of telling new mums. I just can’t believe NO ONE mentioned it!

NI credits are only important if you are not working and most people will work far more than the required number of years anyway. So if you've got them, great. If not, really not work worrying about.