Primary school application...can't find Child Benefit letter HELP!

[MrsHoolie]

My daughter's primary school application needs to be sent by the 10th and I can't find any letter from Child Benefit to prove parental care.
I have found the Council Tax letter at least but what do I do now?
I'm sure they only wrote once when she was born.
Argh,stress.

I called them and asked them to send me a letter but it took 3 weeks to come. I'd call your local council school admissions number and ask.

I called them means I called Child Benefit.

mine would accept NHS card with address (happened to me too) try asking if that would do?

MrsHoolie,
Whilst you need to get this information, the admissions office is applying a condition and a cut off date that they cannot actually enforce. As long as the admission form is there by the cut off date they have to accept the application, the proof of parental care can be followed up after the date.
I would telephone the admission office and say that you will not have this information by the cutoff date, can they confirm by email that they will accept it after the deadline as long as the admission form is with them. By getting it in writing it just stops them getting awkward about it afterwards.

Thank you for all the advice.
Phew,that's a relief,I'll give them a call tomorrow.
Surely I can't be the only one to have lost this letter in the last 4 years

I know it's a ZOMBIE thread but it leads perfectly what I wish to know and the fact Admission is on it, I am sure of getting the correct response unlike the useless HMRC website which goes in circles but doesn't answer anything

My DS starts school in Sept, his sister is already there. School have written to say they must receive a copy of birth cert and child benefit letter otherwise the school place will be removed. (it is actually in bold)

Seriously? I swear I never got this letter for DS 4 years ago. I have one for DD 7 years ago but his name isn't on it.

Am I safe to just ignore them? I did call the HMRC helpline and after spending five minutes talking to a computer, they told me they were too busy to take my call. Goodbye. Click.

When I applied last year, I seem to remember they don't send the letter out as standard any more. If you ring the Child Benefit people and say you need a letter for a school application they send you one saying that you are entitled to it.

I find this rather odd, I've just done all of the paper work for September and have only been asked for proof of residence (council tax bill) and a birth certificate.

Surely a 4 year old letter only confirms the proof of parent care for that date? A child could have moved from one parent to the other and back again since that point.

They can only remove the place if they think your application was false or intentionally misleading. If you have already given proof of address they can't take the place away just because you fail to come up with another proof of address. And if that is why they want the child benefit letter they should have other options for proving address.

I wouldn't just ignore them. I would find out why they want this information and take it from there.

Hi, the school can ask for a birth certificate but can only do that after you have been offered a place at the school. They must not ask for a "long" birth certificate as that would include information about the children's parents which they are not allowed to have.
The first question I would have is whether the school is a community school or an academy or what. If it is a community school then the admission authority is the local authority but in the other cases it is the school that is the admission authority. In that case I could see a reason for them wanting to confirm that the address used is a correct address but not for a community school - that is the LAs problem not the schools.
As PRH says to ignore the letter is inviting problems so I would ask them to confirm exactly why they need this child benefit information. Could they remove the place? I suspect not but why take the chance of getting into what will be a long drawn out problem if they did try to remove the place.
My suspicion is that this is the school office who want the info and are adding the threat in the hope of getting all to reply without the hassle of repeated requests to comply.

Thank you lovely admission experts

It's a community school and council have already had a copy of his birth cert and I sent proof of address by way of council tax bill and tax credit letter.

I think it's the usual useless school office asking for the same thing they have asked for 100 times before without noticing the world has moved on.

I am gladdened to hear that the onus was on the council for the proof which I know they have. I will give school a copy
of his birth cert and (of course I shall be polite) they can whistle for the child benefit letter.

I think that's why you have to ask for the letter when you need it, to prove you have parental responsibility for the child when you apply, to try and stop people using ex-husband's or Grandma's address for the application etc.

While it's not foolproof, it's another way they can try and stop fraudulent applications. Paying Council tax proves you live there, not the child.

I wonder if I'm going to have trouble next year. We live with my parents, it's our permanent address and has been since before DS was born in 2011.
I have bank statements, sky bill, child benefit etc but the council tax is in my parents' names as they own the house. We are on the voters roll.

Errr, what do they do if you don't get child benefit anymore ? Doesn't affect me but was just wondering ...

what do they do if you don't get child benefit anymore

If you are referring to the High Income Child Benefit Charge, you should not withdraw your claim. You should simply opt to stop payment. That way you can restart payments at any time and you still have a child benefit letter. But the school should also accept other forms of proof of address.

I wonder if I'm going to have trouble next year

I see no reason why you should. Plenty of people live with parents. Some of them will need school places. The LA should be able to cope with that.

The letter states that you are entitled to child benefit for that child, it doesn't matter whether you are actually taking the payments or not.

But, as I said, in our area the Child Benefit letter is not for proof of address, it's for proof of who the child lives with.