Employers - Making Child Benefit Claims Quicker And Easier For New Parents

14th June 2023

If you have employees who are about to become parents, they may be interested to know there is a new, easier way to claim Child Benefit online or using the HMRC app.

Parents can claim as much as £1,248 a year for one child, which could add up to almost £20,000 by the time they are 16. They could also receive nearly £827 a year for any other children they have.

Telling your employees about Child Benefit will help them to make the most of the financial support on offer to help with the costs of raising their children.

There is more to Child Benefit than just payments, by claiming they will also:

receive National Insurance credits which count towards their State Pension

make sure their child automatically gets a National Insurance number when they are 16 years old

If they or their partner earn over £50,000 a year they will have to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge on some or all of the money they receive, but it's still worth claiming, and they can even opt out of receiving payments. See https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge

The new, improved online service means many parents can now claim Child Benefit or add an additional child at a time that suits them. A straightforward claim, for example (where a child is under 6 months old) submitted online will be processed much quicker and first payments could reach customers' bank accounts in as little as three working days.

There are two simple steps to using the HMRC app for the first time.

Download the free HMRC app from the App Store for iOS, or the Google Play Store for Android.

Sign in using a Government Gateway user ID and password. If they do not already have an ID and password, this can be created on the same sign in page.

Once this is all set up, signing into the app can be even faster with a pin, fingerprint or facial recognition. This gives customers everything they will need to know about their Child Benefit claim at their fingertips. See https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/how-to-claim

Encourage your staff to download the HMRC App or visit GOV.UK to make a child benefit claim, and help families access the support they are entitled to.