Do you have a child aged 16 to 19 years old? –Remember to extend your child benefit claim!

Child benefit basics

If you are responsible for a child or qualifying young person and live in the UK, you can normally claim child benefit. You can get child benefit no matter what your income. However, if your income, or your partner’s income, is over a certain level, the high income child benefit charge may apply.

Child under 16 years old

You qualify for child benefit if your child is under 16. Child benefit continues until 31 August following your child’s 16^th birthday.

Your child benefit will stop automatically on 31 August on or after your child’s 16th birthday unless you confirm to HMRC that your child is staying on in approved education or training.

Young person aged 16 to 19

If your child is aged 16 to 19 years old (under 20 years old), you continue to qualify for child benefit, provided the child remains in approved education or training (see the headings below for more information). Your claim then continues until the earlier of:

• the ‘terminal date’ after your child has left the approved education or training, and
• the last Monday before they turn 20 years old.

The terminal dates are the last day of February, May, August and November. The relevant terminal date is the one that occurs first after your child leaves approved education or training.

  If your child starts remunerative work for at least 24 hours a week, the child benefit will end at that point rather than the terminal date.

If there are no exams for a course, the date your child leaves education is the date that teaching for their course ends. If the course includes exams, the date your child leaves education is the date of their final exam.

If your child is 16 or 17 and leaves approved education or training but registers with their local careers service, Connexions (or similar) or joins the armed forces, you can get your child benefit extended for 20 weeks. See GOV.UK for more details and how to apply.

However, if your child starts to receive other social security support in their own right, such as universal credit, your child benefit payments will stop from that date.

HMRC letters to child benefit claimants

HMRC are sending letters between May and July 2025 to child benefit claimants whose child is aged between 16 and 19 years old. The letters advise claimants to go online to confirm if their child is staying on in full-time education or approved training from 1 September 2025.

You will be asked to indicate when the education course or approved training will end. So, once you have provided the details to HMRC once, you should not have to contact HMRC each year, unless there is a change.

How to extend your child benefit claim

If your child turned or will turn 16 on or before 31 August 2025, you must contact HMRC before 31 August, to let them know that your child is remaining in approved education or training from 1 September 2025.

If you have received a letter from HMRC, you can scan the QR code that it contains. This will take you to the GOV.UK website or HMRC’s app. You can then extend your claim either online on GOV.UK or via the HMRC app.

You do not need to wait for a letter from HMRC. You can access the online route from GOV.UK. You need to click on the green “Start now” button under the heading “If your child is staying in approved education or training”.

If you are unable to use online services or the HMRC app, you can call or write to HMRC. The contact details are in the letter and also on GOV.UK.

  You do not need to know the name of the provider of the approved education or training to extend your child benefit claim.

What is full-time non-advanced education?

Full-time education is defined as more than an average of 12 hours a week of supervised study or course-related work experience.

It may include A levels, International Baccalaureate, T levels, Scottish Highers and NVQs.

However, it does not include advanced education, such as studying for a university degree or a BTEC Higher National Certificate.

For more information, see GOV.UK.

What is approved training?

Approved training is unpaid training.

It does not include apprenticeships (other than Foundation Apprenticeships in Wales), completing a course with an employer’s agreement or training courses that are a part of a job contract.

For more information, see GOV.UK.

What happens if I miss the deadline?

If you do not manage to contact HMRC by 31 August following your child’s 16^th birthday, your child benefit payments will stop automatically. If you miss the deadline, what happens next depends on how quickly you contact HMRC.

Contact HMRC within three months of 31 August

If your child will be staying in approved education or training, and you contact HMRC within three months of the 31 August, HMRC should still have all the details of your previous claim on file. You will just need to tell HMRC about your child’s continuing education or training.

Child benefit claims can be backdated by up to three months. This means that if you contact HMRC within three months of the 31 August following your child’s 16th birthday, there will effectively be no break in your entitlement to child benefit.

Contact HMRC more than three months after the end of your claim

If you contact HMRC to tell them about your child’s continuing approved education or training, and it is more than three months after the 31 August following your child’s 16^th birthday, you will have to make a new claim for child benefit.

You can backdate your claim by up to three months, but there will be a break in your entitlement to child benefit.

There is more information about how to claim child benefit on GOV.UK.

What if my child leaves approved education or training earlier than expected?

When you tell HMRC that your child is continuing in approved education or training, you are also asked to provide the date you expect the education or training to end. If your child leaves the approved education or training before that date, then you should let HMRC know. Your payments will continue until the next terminal date, unless they have started remunerative work of more than 24 hours a week. If they are working at least 24 hours, the child benefit will stop immediately. This will help to ensure you do not receive overpayments of child benefit, that will be recoverable by HMRC.

What if my child returns to approved education or training?

If your child does not continue in approved education or training after the 31 August following their 16^th birthday, your child benefit claim will end. However, if your child returns to approved education or training before their 19^th birthday, you can claim child benefit again.