Child Benefit is a payment available to anyone responsible for raising a child under 16 (or under 20 if they stay in approved full-time education or training). It's paid regardless of your income or savings — though, as explained below, higher earners may need to pay some of it back through the tax system.
Who can claim
You can claim if you're responsible for a child who lives with you, or if you contribute at least an equivalent amount towards their upkeep. Only one person can claim Child Benefit for a child, so where care is shared, the claimant is usually agreed between the parents rather than both claiming.
The High Income Child Benefit Charge
If you or your partner have an individual income above a set threshold, you may need to pay back some or all of the Child Benefit through a tax charge, via Self Assessment. This affects the higher earner in the household individually, not combined household income — so two parents each earning just under the threshold can both keep full Child Benefit, while one parent earning over it in an otherwise lower-income household may not. Current thresholds are published on gov.uk and are worth checking directly given how the rules specifically apply to your situation.
Why it's often worth claiming even if you expect to repay some
Claiming Child Benefit — even if you opt not to actually receive the payments because of the charge — protects National Insurance credits that count towards your State Pension, and ensures your child is automatically issued a National Insurance number near their 16th birthday. Some higher earners aren't aware they can claim the credits without taking the payment itself.
Keeping the claim up to date
You need to inform HMRC if your child stays in full-time education past 16, since payments otherwise stop automatically at that point. It's worth diarising this if you have a teenager approaching the cut-off, to avoid an unexpected gap in payments.