child benefit and school admissions

[Stepmooster]

This probably seems far too early to be worrying, but we are moving to a new area and I have been checking out the primary school catchment areas and admissions. They all want to see child benefit as proof of a child's address. The thing is we had our baby last year and we earn over the threshold, so we won't have this proof when applying to schools.

Have the schools not caught up with the legislation, or can state schools refuse children whose parents don't claim child benefit? We can't exactly afford private education!

For both primary and (last October) secondary it was done on the Council Tax reference not child benefit.

I feel sure this is just a case of the guidance not catching up with reality. Evidence if where CB is paid used to be one of the forms of evidence that LEAs would accept, to establish that parents actually live at the address they put on the school application form. Ask your LEA what they will accept instead from parents who don't get CB.

Sorry - to add - that's using the PAN-London application forms online. With those you cannot continue with anything other than Council Tax number.

Thank you for your help, I will speak to the LEA in our new area.

we didn't have to provide any proof at all, just filled in the online application form

You should still notify CB office of your baby's arrival but elect not to receive payment. Hopefully that in turn would generate a letter now but whether that will be the case in future probably no one yet knows.

you should still have done your claim for child benefit but opted out of the payment.

Hello - I had this problem for a nursery application. I called the CB office. They don't automatically generate a letter when you make the application but opt out of payment. You should give them a ring and tell them you want a letter - they were very responsive. I had a letter 3 days later.

Did you contact cb recently, as in the current round of admissions, the cb office refused to send letters for school admissions reasons as they said its not their job!

For our school if course, we had to send 2 recent utility bills

Schools definitely cannot take CB status into account for admissions, or decline places for non recipients.

Hello jamtoast12, yes my DD's nursery said they needed the CB letter and we had never regsitered her for Child Benefit, so I sent off the CB form with her passport in March and then that was returned to me. 4 weeks later I hadn't received anything from them, so I called the helpline and the person I spoke to said everything was in order, but they don't normally send a letter. I told her I needed a letter for nursery registration, and then 3 days letter I had one. It just stated that my DD was registered for Child Benefit at that address. Perhaps you were just unlucky with who you spoke to?

No what happened was that the school were called to tell them not to ask for it anymore! So the school itself changed their procedure for evidence this year.

Yes, I don't have time to check it now but as far as I remember you can apply for child benefit but opt not to receive payments. For SAHMs that can help protect the national insurance record, though that may not be an issue for OP if she's gone back to paid work. The other advantage of having a claim in, even if you don't get paid the benefit, is that it is likely to speed things up if you have a change of circumstances (redundancy) and want to start getting payments.

Check out the HMRC website for phone them.