Guardian’s Allowance
Guardian's Allowance is a tax-free payment for people who are bringing up children whose parents have died. In certain circumstances you may qualify for Guardian's Allowance where only one parent has died.
On this page:
- Do you qualify?
- How much Guardian's Allowance will you get?
- How Guardian's Allowance is paid
- Does Guardian's Allowance affect your other benefits?
- Claiming Guardian's Allowance
- Changes you need to tell us about
- If you think our decision is wrong
- Contacting the Guardian's Allowance Unit
- More useful links
Do you qualify?
You can usually get Guardian's Allowance as long as:
- you're bringing up someone else's child or children and both their parents have died
- you qualify for Child Benefit for the child or children you're bringing up
- one of the parents who died was either born in the UK, was from the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, or had been in the UK for at least 52 weeks during any two year period since they were 16 years old
The EEA countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
If you adopt a child you can still get Guardian's Allowance as long as you were getting it before you adopted the child.
Child Benefit - do you qualify?
If one parent has died
Sometimes you can get Guardian's Allowance if only one parent has died, for example if:
- you don't know where the surviving parent is
- the parents were divorced - as long as the surviving parent doesn't have custody of, or isn't maintaining, the child
- the parents weren't married and the mother has died but it's not known who the father is
- the surviving parent is in prison with a minimum two years left to serve, or is in a hospital by court order
How much Guardian's Allowance will you get?
The amount of Guardian's Allowance is £14.10 a week per child on top of the amount you get for Child Benefit.
How Guardian's Allowance is paid
Guardian's Allowance is paid with your Child Benefit payments, and is usually paid every four weeks directly into any bank, building society or National Savings and Investment (NS&I) account that accepts Direct Payment.
How Child Benefit, tax credits and Guardian's Allowance are paid
Does Guardian's Allowance affect your other benefits?
Guardian's Allowance doesn't count as income if you're claiming tax credits, Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance. It is paid on top of these benefits.
Claiming Guardian's Allowance
We can usually backdate Guardian's Allowance for up to three months from the date we get your claim. But sometimes we can backdate it to the point you started to qualify for Child Benefit. However it is best to make your claim straight away to avoid losing money. You should claim Guardian's Allowance as soon as the child involved comes to live with you.
Try to claim both Guardian's Allowance and Child Benefit at the same time so that we can deal with them both together. If you can't apply for Guardian's Allowance straight away, make sure you apply for Child Benefit.
When you claim you will need to provide:
- the child's original birth certificate
- the original death certificate for the parent or parents
We cannot accept photocopies.
Where to get a claim form
You can:
- print out a blank Guardian's Allowance claim form and fill it in by hand
- get a claim pack by contacting the Guardian's Allowance Unit
Before you complete the claim form, please read the notes that go with it.
Once you have completed your form, please send it back to the Guardian's Allowance Unit at the address shown below.
Get a blank Guardian's Allowance claim form
Get help with claiming Guardian's Allowance (PDF 253K)
Changes you need to tell us about
There are many changes that may affect your entitlement to Guardian's Allowance and also Child Benefit.
If you are getting Guardian's Allowance because one parent is dead and the surviving parent is in prison or in hospital, you must tell us if the surviving parent:
- comes out
- has their sentence reduced
- starts to pay towards their child's upkeep
There are other changes that may also affect your entitlement to both Guardian's Allowance and Child Benefit. For example you must tell us if:
- the child you get Guardian's Allowance for goes to live with someone else
- you go abroad
- your child leaves relevant education or training
Other changes may also delay your payments. It is very important to tell us:
- If you change the account you get your Guardian's Allowance and Child Benefit paid into. Otherwise we may be sending payments to the wrong place.
- If you change your address. If we can't contact you at the address we have, your payments may stop until we know where you are living.
For a more complete list of changes that affect your Guardian's Allowance and Child Benefit, follow the link below.
Child Benefit - which changes you need to report
If you think our decision is wrong
If we've looked at your Guardian's Allowance claim or your details and have come to a decision that you don't agree with, contact us within a month of the decision date. You can ask us to:
- explain how we reached our decision
- check your claim again to make sure our decision was the right one
It's your right to get a proper explanation about a Guardian's Allowance decision.
If we re-check your claim, we'll either change our decision if we got it wrong, or stick with our original decision.
If you're still not happy, you can appeal against our decision. If you go ahead with an appeal, we'll pass it on to an independent body, the Appeals Service, to look at. The appeals process for Guardian's Allowance is the same as the one for Child Benefit.
Appealing against a Child Benefit decision
Contacting the Guardian's Allowance Unit
You can get in touch with the Guardian's Allowance Unit in a number of ways. You can send in your query online following the link below, or you can call the Unit on Tel 0845 302 1464 or Textphone 0845 302 1474 from Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5.00 pm (except for Bank Holidays).
Alternatively you can write to:
The Guardian's Allowance Unit
Child Benefit Office
PO Box 1
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE88 1AA
Send us your Guardian's Allowance query online
More useful links
Let us know about changes online that may affect your Guardian's Allowance
