FACTSHEET No. 51

Child Benefit & Guardian's Allowance

I. Child benefit

I.1. What is child benefit?

A benefit paid if you are responsible for a dependent child, children or young person.

I.2. What are the rules for child benefit?

You must:

  • responsible for a dependent child or qualifying young person
  • pass the residence and presence tests.

You are responsible for a child if the child lives with you or you contribute to the cost of providing for the child, providing the amount you pay is the same as, or more than, the weekly rate of child benefit you get for them.

I.3. Qualifying young person

This is a young person under the age of 20 and in one of the following:

  • full-time, non-advanced education( more than 12 hours a week) at school or college up to no higher than A-level or NVQ level 3 standard
  • or approved, unwaged training (eg through ‘Entry to employment’ or Skillseekers). The training must not be provided under a contract of employment. Nineteen-year-olds can only be included if they started such education or approved training before their 19th birthday or were accepted or enrolled to undertake it. be up to and including or equivalent.

You cannot get child benefit for a young person if he or she receives employment and support allowance, income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, incapacity benefit or any tax credit.

I.4. The child benefit residence and presence test

You and the child for whom you are claiming must:

  • be present in the UK
  • be ordinarily resident

You must also have the right to reside.

Present means physically present in UK.

Ordinarily resident is not defined. It is taken to mean the place where you normally live for the time being if there is a degree of continuity about your stay and it can be described as being settled.

There is no definition of right to reside but the test is treated as part of the child benefit presence test.

I.5. How to claim child benefit?

You claim on form CH2. You should be sent a copy of this automatically just after your baby is born. Alternatively you can download a form from www.hmrc.gov.uk/menus/child_benefit.htm or claim online at www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/online.htm.

You can also request a form by ringing the Child Benefit Helpline on 0845 302 1444 (text phone 0845 302 1474).

I.6. How much is child benefit?

* £20.30 for your eldest child
* £13.40 for each of your other children

These rates are frozen for three years from April 2011.

II. Guardian's allowance

II.1. What is guardian's allowance?

You can get guardian's allowance if you are looking after a child who is effectively an orphan.

II.2. What are the rules for guardian's allowance?

The following conditions must be satisfied:

  • You must be getting child benefit or treated as being entitled to child benefit for a child, children or qualifying young person who lives with you or who you must contribute maintenance for. The definition of child or young person is the same as that for child benefit.
  • At least one of the child's parents must have been born in the UK or have, at some time after reaching the age of 16, spent a total of 52 weeks in any two year period in the UK. Or they must be a national, or a member of the family of a national of a country in the European Economic Area (EEA), who was insured under United Kingdom social security legislation.
  • Both of the child's/children's parents must be either dead or at least one of the parents is dead and the other is one of the following:
  • missing 
  • divorced or out of a civil partnership and liable for neither custody or maintenance of the child
  • in prison for a period of not less than 2 years from the date the other parent has died
  • detained in a hospital under one of the following:
  1. Section 37(1), 38,or 45A of the Mental Health Act 1983
  2. Section 5 of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964
  3. Section 6 or 14 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968
  4. Section 57, 58 or 59A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995)
  5. Article 44, 45, 50A or 51(2) and (3) of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986
  6. Section 11 or 13(5A) and (6) of the Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act 1980

II.3. How to claim guardian's allowance?

You claim on form BG1 which you can get by ringing the Guardian's Allowance Unit on 0845 302 1444 (textphone 0845 302 1464). You can also download form BG1 from www.direct.gov.uk.

II.4. How much is guardian's allowance

£14.75

III. Where can I get more help and information?

You can get help at a local advice centre, such as CARA or any citizen's advice bureau. You can get more information about this from our factsheet F16, Finding a local advice centre.

For more information on the appeals process, our factsheets and publications, you can contact CARA on +44 (0) 844 478 0015 -Mob: +44(0) 795 695 2645 -Fax: +44(0) 872 115 8436 -Email: info@cara-online.org.

Updated April 8 2011