There has been a significant increase in the number of new Child Benefit claims after eligibility standards were changed in April.
An FOI (freedom of information) request from the BBC revealed that there were 86,656 new claims filed, an increase of 16 per cent from the previous month.
Child Benefit is available to you if you are the parent of a child under the age of 16, or under the age of 20, provided the child continues in approved training or education.
Benefits for children can only be claimed by one person. The weekly payments amount to £16.95 for younger children and £25.60 for the oldest or only child.However, there is a payment known as the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) that is deducted after one parent begins to earn a certain amount.
Once parents reach a certain income barrier, they must begin repaying a portion of the benefit; in the March Budget, former chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced this threshold would increase in April.
The income threshold at which recipients must begin repaying a portion of the benefit increased to £60,000 on April 6 from £50,000, while the threshold at which benefits are fully withdrawn increased to £80,000 from £60,000.
Under the new guidelines, you can keep claiming Child Benefit until you earn above £80,000 annually, as opposed to the previous requirement of repaying 100 per cent of it once you make £60,000. You may receive Child Benefit in full if you and your spouse make less than £60,000 annually. You now only start paying back Child Benefit when you earn more than £60,000 a year, at a rate of one per cent for every £200 you earn.
HMRC told the BBC that April had a much higher number of claims than any other month, adding that it occasionally receives rival applications that are submitted after a household breakdown or duplicate claims that are submitted in error.
Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell, said: “The boost in claimants in April is good news.
“It’s likely that the announcement by the government had a dual effect: it made more people eligible for the benefit and so they claimed, but it also put Child Benefit in the news and reminded other parents who were already eligible that they should claim it.”
