Updated on 6 April 2026

High income child benefit charge: issues on separation

This page looks at some complications which arise with the high income child benefit charge (HICBC) when a relationship ends. This is a complex area. You should seek specific advice on HICBC issues which may arise on separation.

a large white arrow painted on the floor, the arrow then splits in two going in opposite directions. there are 2 people walking on the arrow one turning left and one turning right.

StunningArt / Shutterstock.com

Content on this page:

Definition of ‘partner’

Please note: References on this page to being married include being in a civil partnership and references to a spouse include a civil partner.

Two people who are married to each other are treated as ‘partners’ for the purposes of the high income child benefit charge if they are not separated under a court order or separated in circumstances likely to be permanent.

However, you can also be treated as a ‘partner’ of someone else for the purposes of the charge if you are ‘living together as if you are married.’

In most cases, it is usually clear whether or not someone is treated as your partner under either of these tests. But determining when someone becomes your ‘partner’ – and when that person may stop being your ‘partner’ – can be tricky.

If you are not married

Relationships are infinitely variable. If you are living together with your partner and you are not married, or not yet married, how can you tell whether you are living together as if you were?

There is no legal definition. This means you have to look at lots of factors, including:

financial interdependence
stability of your relationship
whether or not you have children together
public acknowledgement of your relationship (for example, whether friends and family see you as a couple)
your future plans together

If you are not married but you are living together with your partner, then you need to determine precisely when your relationship changes to be of a more permanent nature. In other words, you must work out when it would start to be described in terms consistent with that of a married couple.

This can be very problematic, not least because each partner may have different views on the point (and so may HMRC or the courts), but also because it must be assessed on a weekly basis to determine your liability to the HICBC.

If you never marry, then you may need to make the reverse assessment if you later separate: when do you go from ‘living together as a married couple’ to ‘not living together as a married couple’?

On a practical level, if you are living together with someone you would describe as your partner, you might consider your ‘partnership’ for the purposes of the high income child benefit charge to commence from the point you move in together and end if and when you then later move out and no longer live in the same household. However, the period may be shorter than that – for example, if you separate but you continue to live under the same roof for financial or practical reasons.

Remember that the test is whether or not you are living together as a married couple. This means that if you are not married and you are not living together, then another person cannot be treated as your partner for the purposes of the high income child benefit charge – whatever the nature of your relationship.

If you are (or were) married

If you are married, you will automatically be treated as partners for the purposes of the high income child benefit charge unless you are separated. That separation must be either under a court order or in circumstances likely to be permanent. A court order will be clear enough. But how can you tell whether you have separated in circumstances ‘likely to be permanent’?

Again, this depends on the facts and circumstances of the case. There is no legal test and the two parties to the relationship, HMRC and the courts, may all have a different view.

Practically, you would usually be separated in such circumstances if, as a couple, you both agreed that you were not going to get back together. Where you are not in agreement, HMRC or the courts will need to resort to looking at the available evidence such as whether (or when) one party moved out of the marital home and whether that was a permanent or temporary move. Even if you are in agreement, HMRC or the courts may come to a different decision.

Liability to HICBC

It can be confusing to understand when the liability to the high income child benefit charge ends in case of separation, because the charge is always assessed based on your total annual income – even though you may have only had a partner who claimed child benefit for part of the year.

Note that liability to the charge will generally fall on the individual who claims the child benefit (or their partner at the time of entitlement), even if the child benefit is paid to someone else (such as an ex-partner). The only exception is where contributions are made by the claimant towards the upkeep of a child who lives with someone else and the liability to the charge transfers to that person (or their new partner) – see more information under the heading ‘If you receive contributions towards your child’s upkeep’. For this reason, it is important to review who is making the claim to child benefit when a couple separates – otherwise the high income child benefit charge may arise when it could have been avoided.

Calculating the high income child benefit charge in the year of separation

First, you need to work out the date of separation for the purposes of the high income child benefit charge (see information above, depending on whether you are – or were – married or not).

Next, you need to work out the total amount of child benefit which needs to be brought into account when calculating the charge. This may not be the same as the total child benefit received in the tax year by the claimant. To do this you need to add up all of the child benefit received by you or your former partner in respect of the weeks in the tax year you were together – up to and including the week of separation. Note that child benefit is normally paid 4-weekly, so you would likely need to include part of a 4-weekly payment. A 4-weekly payment is paid in respect of the week of payment and the previous three weeks.

The high income child benefit charge is paid by the parter who has the highest adjusted net income. If your adjusted net income is the highest, and the child benefit was claimed by your partner in the year, then the amount of child benefit for the calculation of your charge will be your ex-partner’s entitlement for the part of the year before the separation. You can either ask your ex-partner to confirm the amount of entitlement for the year or you can use the calculator on GOV.UK to work this out. You will need to enter the date of separation as the ‘end date’ when using the calculator. The calculator will produce two figures, it will tell you firstly how much child benefit would have been received during the period that you were living with the claimant (provided you correctly enter the number of children and the correct end date). The calculator will also provide a second figure which is an estimate of your high income child benefit charge for the year, based on the income information entered into the calculator.

Example – separation during the tax year

Karl and Gemma were married, but they separated on 5 October 2025 (that is, halfway through the 2025/26 tax year, when the relevant threshold was £60,000). Karl’s annual adjusted net income was £65,000 in 202/25 and £70,000 in 2025/26. Gemma’s income for both years is £35,000. Gemma claims child benefit in respect of their two children and she continues to do so after the separation. The children live with Gemma.

For tax years up to and including 2024/25, Karl is liable to the high income child benefit charge. Because his adjusted net income was £65,000 in 2024/25, the charge in that year will clawback 25% (£65,000 - £60,000 = £5,000, divided by £200 equals 25) of the child benefit received in respect of the year. Gemma received a total of £2,212.60 in child benefit for 2024/25, so Karl’s HICBC is £553 (calculated as 25% x £2,212.60, rounded down to the nearest pound).

For 2025/26, Karl is also liable to the HICBC based on his adjusted net income of £70,000. The charge is 50% (£70,000 - £60,000 = £10,000, divided by £200 equals 50). However, the child benefit which is used to calculate the charge will be restricted to the amount received for the first half of the year before they separated. Gemma received a total of £2,251.60 for the year. The amount relating to the part of the year Karl and Gemma were together is £1,125.80. Karl’s HICBC for 2025/26 would therefore be £562 (calculated as 50% x £1,125.80, rounded down to the nearest pound).

Paying the high income child benefit charge

Information about paying the high income child benefit charge through Self Assessment or PAYE can be found on our separate guidance page.

If you pay your high income child benefit charge through Self Assessment, please visit our guidance page High income child benefit charge: moving in with your partner, where we provide more information on completing your tax return where child benefit for a part year is used to calculate the correct charge in Though the guidance is written from the viewpoint of becoming liable to the charge rather than ceasing to be chargeable, the concepts are broadly similar when it comes to completing your tax return.

The high income child benefit charge may become payable quite some time after the separation. In the example above, if Karl completed a Self Assessment tax return for each tax year, the amounts could be due as part of his balancing payment on 31 January after the end of each year. This means that the 2024/25 charge could be due on 31 January 2026, approximately 4 months after the separation in October 2025, and the 2025/26 charge could be due on 31 January 2027, some 16 months after the separation. You may wish to bear this in mind if you are agreeing a financial settlement as part of the separation.

Income changes

As highlighted above, your income level for the high income child benefit charge is always assessed based on the entire tax year – not simply your income for the period during which child benefit is taken in account when calculating the charge, if that is different.

The below example shows how this can lead to unexpected results.

Example – separation followed by an increase in income

Dev and Ramona are married and have two children. At the start of the 2025/26 tax year, Dev was employed on an annual salary of £55,000 and he has no deductible pension contributions. Ramona’s salary is £35,000 and she claims child benefit for the children. They have never had to consider the HICBC in previous years as they both had incomes below the threshold.

Sadly, the marriage breaks down during the tax year and on 1 September 2025 Dev leaves the family home permanently. The children stay living with Ramona full time and she continues to claim child benefit. Dev moves to live with his parents in London and, due to the relocation, he also changes job, which he starts on 5 October 2025. His new salary is £69,000. Again, he has no deductible pension contributions.

Dev’s total income for the 2025/26 tax year is as follows:

	£
Salary from old job: £55,000 x 6/12 months	27,500
Salary from new job: £69,000 x 6/12 months	34,500
Total Income	£62,000

Based on Dev’s total income for the 2025/26 tax year, he is liable to the high income child benefit charge. The charge applies despite the fact his annualised salary during the period he was treated as Ramona’s partner was below £60,000 (the relevant threshold for the year).

Backdating child benefit payments

If, as a couple, you are affected by the high income child benefit charge then you may choose to opt out of receiving child benefit payments using HMRC’s online child benefit service, or by completing an online form. You may decide to do this to avoid the hassle of claiming child benefit only for the partner with the higher adjusted net income to have to pay back most or all of it as a result of the charge.

If the child benefit claimant chooses to opt out of receiving child benefit payments they would continue to be entitled to National Insurance credits. This may help them build up entitlement to a UK state pension if they were not entitled to a qualifying year towards their state pension for any other reason. This is an important difference to ending the claim altogether, which removes the entitlement to National Insurance credits available to child benefit claimants.

Once you have opted out, you can restart your child benefit payments – for example, after separating from a higher-income partner who would have been liable to the high income child benefit charge.

In certain circumstances, it is possible to backdate the payments for up two tax years. Strictly speaking, the law allows you to do this in the case only where no high income child benefit charge would have been payable. However, HMRC also allows backdated payments in cases where the charge would be less than the child benefit payable, that is, the full amount of the child benefit payable would not be clawed back through the charge.

You cannot, therefore, backdate payments after separation if in so doing you would trigger the high income child benefit charge on your former partner.

If you receive contributions towards your child’s upkeep

The HICBC applies to you (or your partner) in this situation if all of the following apply:

You (or your partner) have an adjusted net income of more than the relevant threshold for a tax year (£60,000 from 2024/25, £50,000 up to and including 2023/24).
Someone else (such as your ex-partner) claims child benefit for a given week in that year in respect of a child who lives with you, on the basis that they are contributing towards the cost of providing for that child.
Neither the person who claims child benefit (nor any partner they may have) is liable to the high income child benefit charge for the tax year in which that week falls.

It is therefore not possible to avoid the charge by having your ex-partner claim child benefit and pay you the money.

However, if the child is only living with you for a temporary period (no more than 52 weeks) and they live with the person who claimed child benefit immediately before and after that period, then the child benefit claimed in that period is ignored for this purpose.

This means, for example, that in shared custody arrangements where your ex-partner claims child benefit and your child lives with you for only part of the year, liability for the HICBC in respect of that claim would not normally transfer to you.

Example – shared custody arrangement

Polly is 8. She normally lives with her dad, Jamie. In April 2025, Jamie finds out that his mother is terminally ill, so he goes to live with and care for her from 1 May 2025 until her death in October 2025. Polly moves in with her mum, Sienna, while Jamie is away. Jamie claims child benefit throughout and gives money each month to Sienna for Polly. Polly returns to live with Jamie in late October 2025.

Sienna has adjusted net income of £65,000. In this situation, even though Sienna is potentially in scope of the HICBC because her adjusted net income exceeds the relevant threshold for 2025/26 (£60,000), she does not have to pay the charge as both of the following apply:

Polly has lived with her for a period of less than 52 weeks.
Jamie claimed child benefit for Polly for the weeks immediately before and after that period.

If Jamie had been away caring for his mother for more than a year, Sienna might have become liable to the HICBC.

If you get back together

First, if you get back together with your partner, you should determine whether or not you ever separated for the purposes of the high income child benefit charge. If you were married (and perhaps remained so), then it would be necessary for you to have been separated in circumstances likely to be permanent. Therefore, to get back together after this would, by definition, be unlikely. Nevertheless, it is possible, depending on the facts of the case.

If you are the higher earner and your (ex-)partner continued to claim child benefit while you were separated, you would again need to determine the precise point (or at least, the precise week) in which they became your partner again so that you can calculate how much child benefit will need to be brought into the HICBC calculation. This is because the amount of child benefit paid for weeks during which you were separated would be ignored.

If you were never married, remember that living together is a requirement for being treated as partners for HICBC purposes. So, if you moved out, you would need to move back in together and then ask yourselves at what point did you recommence living together as a married couple. This is the point from which the child benefit payments would be clawed back via the high income child benefit charge.

More information

If you have a change of circumstances relating to your child benefit claim, you should tell HMRC.