Child Benefit is a tax-free payment that you can claim for your child. It is usually paid every four weeks but in some cases can be paid weekly. The payment can be claimed by anyone who qualifies, whatever their income or savings. The level of payment depends only on the number of children in the family, with a higher payment for the eldest child; it is not income-based.
Child Benefit is paid to those responsible for children (aged under 16) or qualifying young people. The latter includes:
Quarterly Statistics – discontinued
These statistics cover each quarter from May 2003 to August 2007 and include
all families and children in receipt of Child Benefit at the reference date.
Following the Child Benefit data loss and subsequent data embargo in 2007
this series was suspended pending review. The decision was made not to resurrect
this series for several reasons; firstly that we would be unable to provide
statistics to fill in the missing quarters, secondly that the in-year quarterly
movements are now well established and documented, and finally because of
resource constraints.
Geographical Statistics
These statistics provide detailed annual geographical estimates of the number
of families and children claiming Child Benefit in respect of the 31 August
of the year of analysis, from 2003 to the latest available statistics. Despite
the delays to publication due to the data loss, there are no gaps in the series.
Small Area Data - LSOA and Data Zone (not
National Statistics)
These statistics provide detailed annual geographical estimates of the number
of families and children claiming Child Benefit in respect of the 31 August
of the year of analysis, from 2003 to the latest available statistics.
Take-up rates
From 2007-08 the Tax Credits Take-up publication has been expanded to include
an estimate of Child Benefit take-up.
Bespoke analysis of Child Benefit data is possible although there may be a charge depending on the level of complexity and the resources required to produce. If you would like to discuss your requirements, to comment on the current publications, or for further information about the Child Benefit statistics please use the contact information at the beginning of this publication, or from the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website.
HMRC are committed to improving the official statistics they publish, they want to encourage and promote user engagement, so they can improve statistical outputs.
HMRC would welcome any views you have using the link to the feedback form below. They will undertake to review user comments on a quarterly basis and use this information to influence the development of our official statistics. HMRC will summarise and publish user comments at regular intervals.
HMRC official statistics user engagement form
Following the recent National Statistics Review of Child Benefit Statistics a summary of responses have been published on the HMRC website.
Results of the Child Benefit National and Official Statistics User Survey: Summary (PDF 132K)
