If things go wrong with your Child Benefit claim

In this section:

Problems with your Child Benefit - where to start
How to complain to the Child Benefit Office
Appealing against a Child Benefit decision
You haven't received your usual Child Benefit payment

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Problems with your Child Benefit - where to start

Problems with your Child Benefit - where to start

If you think something's gone wrong with your Child Benefit, there's plenty of support and advice available to help check what's happened and sort out any problems.

Can't find your claim form?

If you had a Child Benefit claim form but you can't find it you'll need to get another one and send it to us.

The easiest way of getting a new Child Benefit claim form is online. You can:

Fill in a claim form on screen and print it out - you'll still need to send it to the Child Benefit Office. Although the form currently shows April 2007 in a number of places you can still use this form to make your claim. The date does not affect how you complete the form or whether you qualify for Child Benefit.
Print out a blank claim form and fill it in by hand.

Whichever way you choose, fill it in carefully and then post it to the Child Benefit Office. The address is printed on the form.

If you have any problems getting the claim form you can contact the Child Benefit Office Helpline on Tel 0845 302 1444 or textphone Tel 0845 302 1474. It's open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, seven days a week, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

If your preferred language is Welsh you can call on Tel 0845 302 1489, and if you're calling from outside the UK Tel + 44 161 210 3086.

Get a Child Benefit claim form to fill in on screen and print out (PDF 715K)

Get a blank Child Benefit claim form to print out (PDF 116K)

Get a Welsh Child Benefit claim form to fill in on screen and print out (PDF 945K)

Read about how to fill in a Child Benefit claim form

Problems with your payments?

Sometimes you might not get a Child Benefit payment when you're expecting one. Or you might suddenly get less than you were expecting.

For example, perhaps you're:

expecting a payment into your account but it hasn't turned up
worried that a cheque has gone missing
still waiting for your first Child Benefit payment
wondering why your payments have gone down
confused about why your payments have stopped

If we normally make payments straight into your account, it could just be that it's not showing in there yet. Or it could be that we've got the wrong account details for you.

Maybe you're not sure when your next Child Benefit payment's due. If you're not sure, you can check the payment date online.

Check when your next Child Benefit payment's due

You haven't received your usual Child Benefit payment

When you can expect your first Child Benefit payment

Understand why your Child Benefit payments might have gone down or stopped

If you think the amount we are paying you is wrong

The amount of Child Benefit you'll get depends on:

the number of eligible children you're bringing up
the current Child Benefit rates

You don't get the same amount for each of your children. You get more for your eldest or only child than for any of your other children.

Check the current Child Benefit rates

If you've checked the current rates and you still think you're getting the wrong amount, please tell us as soon as possible. You can contact us online following the link below. Or you can call the Child Benefit Helpline on Tel 0845 302 1444 or textphone Tel 0845 302 1474. It's open between 8.00 am and 8.00 pm, seven days a week, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

If your preferred language is Welsh you can call on Tel 0845 302 1489, and if you're calling from outside the UK Tel + 44 161 210 3086.

Let us know why you think the amount's wrong, perhaps your circumstances have changed for example. We'll check everything and make sure you get the right amount as soon as possible.

Let us know online if you think the amount of Child Benefit you are getting is wrong

Unhappy with a decision we have made?

If we've looked at your claim or your details and have come to a decision that you don't agree with, contact us within a month of the date on the letter we sent you about our decision. 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 Child Benefit decision.

If we re-check your claim, we'll either change our decision if we got it wrong, or leave our original decision as it is.

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.

Find out how to appeal against a Child Benefit decision

Unhappy with the way we've handled your Child Benefit claim?

If you're unhappy about the way we've handled your Child Benefit claim you can complain. You can make a complaint to us by phone or in writing. We'll do our best to deal with your complaint as quickly as we can.

Find out how to complain to the Child Benefit Office