If your child is about to turn 16, there’s a decent chunk of money you could be about to lose without even realising it. Child Benefit doesn’t stop automatically when your teenager blows out those candles, but it won’t keep coming forever either, and the rules catch a lot of parents off guard.
Right now, Child Benefit pays £25.60 per week for your eldest child and £16.95 per week for each additional child. Over a year, that’s more than £1,300 for a family with two kids. It’s not nothing, and for plenty of households it quietly helps cover school lunches, bus passes, and the endless parade of costs that come with raising a teenager.
Here’s what trips people up. Payments continue until your child turns 16, but if they stay in approved education or training, you can claim Child Benefit right through to their 20th birthday. That covers A-levels, T Levels, NVQs up to level 3, and certain traineeships. It does not cover paid work or higher education like university.
HMRC won’t automatically know your teenager has stayed on at school or college. You have to tell them. If you don’t update your claim, payments stop, and you could miss out on months of money you were perfectly entitled to.
“A lot of families assume it just carries on or that someone else will sort it,” said one welfare rights adviser at a Citizens Advice branch in Manchester. “But the onus is entirely on the parent to report the change.”
The process itself is straightforward enough. You can update your claim online through your Government Gateway account or call HMRC directly on 0300 200 3100. You’ll need your child’s details and confirmation of their education or training provider.
It’s also worth knowing that the High Income Child Benefit Charge still applies here. If either parent earns over £60,000, you’ll start paying some of it back through your tax return. The charge was recently adjusted, so it’s worth double-checking your position if your income has changed.
With the cost of sixth form and college adding up fast, the question worth sitting with is: how many families are quietly missing out simply because no one told them to pick up the phone?
