Child Benefit - 2nd child, higher income

[DearieMeWhatsUp]

I've recently had my second child, and looking at adding her onto my child benefit claim. We don't receive child benefit money due to our income, but made the claim for my first child to cover my national insurance while I was on maternity leave. We chose to opt out of the payments rather than do the tax return.

I'm trying to add my second child on, however it's proving difficult as when I got married a couple of years ago, I haven't yet changed my name on most docs, but HMRC have my married name, so I'm struggling to prove my identity online.

All this to say - is it actually worth the hassle / necessary to add child 2 onto the claim? Will having child 1 (she's 5) on the claim already mean that my NIC are covered for this second maternity leave?

Ni is only credited until a child is 12 so if you forget to add your second child on in 7 years then you will miss out on ni credits.

But presumably she'll be back at work by then?

Sorry yes - I'm taking a years maternity leave then will be back at work 4 days a week.

If you're going back to work it doesn't matter. I just stopped claiming.

You only need to “claim” it if you or your partner need the NI credits. In my case, my DH is self-employed and doesn’t pay full
NI. However, he gets the NI credits from the child benefit up until our youngest is 12. We have opted out of the payments so it’s purely set up for the NI credit.