Our service to you

Child Benefit Office is responsible for the administration and payment of Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance. We deal with all UK customers and also some customers who are abroad.

Our aim is to be a centre of excellence, providing a modern, accessible, customer focused service.

Customer Service Statement

We are here to make sure that everyone understands and receives what they are entitled to, and understands and pays what they owe, so that everyone contributes to the UK's well being.

This page lets you know what you can expect in your day-to-day dealings with us. It does not cover all the details of our commitments to our customers, but it gives you hyperlinks to pages that contain more information.

What you can expect from us

We will make it easy for you to understand your rights and responsibilities, including:

  • what you are entitled to
  • what you must do
  • when you must do it.

We will provide a service in a way that is convenient for you including:

  • via the internet through online services
  • by phone through our network of contact centres and helplines
  • face to face at local enquiry centres and Job Centre Plus offices.

If your preferred language is Welsh

HMRC policy allows all customers, no matter where they live, to correspond in Welsh. If you would prefer to correspond with us in Welsh please let us know.

You can get more information about our telephone numbers and address on our Contact us page

If you have visual or hearing difficulties

We can reply to you in a different format if you ask us to. Examples of the formats available are:

  • braille
  • audio cassette
  • large print
  • computer disk.

Please let us know if you prefer us to reply in one of these formats.
Further information about how to get in touch is available on the Contact us page.

Our standards

Each year we set ourselves targets for our standard of service. Our Child Benefit processing targets for 2007 to 2008 are to:

  • answer at least 90% of phone calls within 20 seconds
  • reply to 90% of letters within 15 working days
  • make a decision on 69% of claims to Child Benefit within 5 working days
  • identify and answer 100% of Freedom of Information requests within 20 working days.

Every year we check to see if we have reached our standard and we publish the results.

Our Child Benefit Processing Office achievements in 2006 to 2007

Standards of Service

Target

Achievement

Answering telephone calls within 20 seconds

90%

92.8%

Replying to letters within 15 days

80%

91.4%

Deciding claims to Child Benefit within 5 days

69%

68.3%

Answering Freedom of Information Requests within 20 days

100%

100%

If you are not happy with our service

You can contact us at Child Benefit Office. We aim to answer your complaint within 15 working days. If, at this point, you are unhappy with the way your complaint was dealt with, you can then contact the Director of the Child Benefit Office. If you are still dissatisfied, the independent Adjudicator's Office can look at your complaint.

You can contact the Director of Child Benefit Office at:

Director of Child Benefit Office
PO Box 87
HM Revenue & Customs
Child Benefit Office
Waterview Park
Washington
NE88 1YB

You can get additional information about the adjudicator's Office at Adjudicator's Office website.

Our factsheet C/FS Complaints and Putting Things Right (PDF 264K) explains our complaints procedure and how we set about putting things right when we have made a mistake.