Child Benefit and Guardian's Allowance

Child Benefit is a benefit paid to parents or other people who are responsible for bringing up a child aged under 16 or a young person aged under 20 if they are still in full-time education up to A level or equivalent, or on certain approved training courses.

If you get Child Benefit for a child, you can also claim Guardian's Allowance if the child is not your own (biologically or by adoption) and their parents have either both died or one has died and the other is unable to look after them, for example, because they are missing or are in prison.

Both Child Benefit and Guardian's Allowance are non-means-tested benefits and are administered by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Latest updates

New regulations (26 October 2023): Child Benefit and Tax Credits (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023 (SI.No.1139/2023) - New regulations that bring forward the removal of the child benefit ‘living in the UK’ test as a result of the situation in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Lebanon >> More child benefit and guardian's allowance legislation

New regulations (12 May 2023): Child Benefit (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (SI.No.533/2023) - New regulations that provide for exemption from the requirement to have been living in the UK for at least three months before becoming entitled to child benefit for people arriving in the UK who left Sudan in connection with the violence which rapidly escalated there on 15 April 2023 >> More child benefit and guardian's allowance legislation

New regulations (8 March 2023): Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2023 (SI.No.280/2022) - New regulations ensure that uprating of guardian’s allowance for 2023/2024 does not apply where the claimant is living abroad >> More child benefit and guardian's allowance legislation

New regulations (2 March 2023): Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Uprating Regulations 2023 (SI.No.237/2022) - New regulations set the rates of working tax credit, child tax credit, child benefit and guardian's allowance from April 2023 >> More child benefit and guardian's allowance legislation

New regulations (22 February 2023): Tax Credits and Child Benefit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023 (SI.No.179/2023) - Include changes in relation to mandatory reconsideration and whether a birth certificate is required to support a child benefit claim >> More child benefit and guardian's allowance legislation