Child Benefit and HICBC explained

Child Benefit in 2026/27 — rates and who gets it

Child Benefit is a universal payment available to anyone responsible for a child under 16 (or under 20 if they are in approved education or training). Unlike Universal Credit, it is not means tested at the point of claim. The current 2026/27 weekly rates are £27.05 for the eldest or only child and £17.90 for each additional child.

Those rates add up. A family with two children receives £44.95 a week — £2,337 a year — just in Child Benefit. A family with three children receives £62.85 a week. The amounts are meaningful for family budgets and worth claiming even when other support is not available.

Child Benefit is paid every four weeks into a bank account. You can claim as soon as your child is born or as soon as a child comes to live with you. Claims can be backdated by up to three months.

What the High Income Child Benefit Charge is

The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) is a tax charge that recovers some or all of Child Benefit if anyone in the household has adjusted net income over a threshold. From the 2024/25 tax year onwards, the threshold is £60,000 and the charge reaches 100% — meaning the full Child Benefit is recovered — at £80,000.

The charge applies to the highest earner in the household, not both earners. So a couple where one earns £75,000 and the other earns £30,000 are subject to HICBC based on the £75,000 figure, not the combined income.

The rate of the charge is 1% of the annual Child Benefit for every £200 of adjusted net income above £60,000. At £70,000, that is 50% of Child Benefit repaid. At £80,000 or above, the full amount is repaid through the charge.

Adjusted net income — the figure that actually matters

Adjusted net income is not the same as gross salary. It is your gross income minus certain deductions. The most important deductions for many higher earners are pension contributions paid into a registered pension scheme and Gift Aid donations to charity.

If you earn £65,000 and make £6,000 a year in pension contributions, your adjusted net income is £59,000 — below the £60,000 HICBC threshold. In that case, no charge applies at all.

This is why salary sacrifice pension contributions can make sense for earners close to the threshold. They reduce the adjusted net income figure dollar-for-dollar (up to the pension contribution rules), which can move a household from a partial or full HICBC position to no charge at all.

Why keeping the claim alive still makes sense for some families

Even when a household decides to opt out of receiving Child Benefit payments — to avoid the hassle of registering for Self Assessment and repaying the charge — it usually makes sense to keep the claim active.

An active claim protects National Insurance credits for the non-working or lower-earning partner. These credits count toward the State Pension and are valuable over a working life. Without them, a career break for childcare can leave a permanent gap in the NI record.

A live claim also ensures the child receives a National Insurance number automatically at age 16. Without a claim, the child may need to apply separately later.

Opting out of payments is straightforward. HMRC allows this online, and the claim continues to exist even with payments suspended. If circumstances change and the income position improves, payments can be reinstated.

How to pay the HICBC — Self Assessment

The person subject to the charge needs to register for Self Assessment and declare the Child Benefit received through a tax return. HMRC can also collect it through a tax code adjustment if you prefer.

If you have not been completing Self Assessment and realise HICBC may have applied in past years, HMRC has a backdating process. The rules on penalties and interest for late registration have been updated in recent years, and many families who came forward voluntarily received a reduced penalty.

Once registered, the charge is straightforward to calculate. It is the annual Child Benefit received, adjusted by the taper rate for your income above the threshold.

The planning question — should we claim or not?

For households with a higher earner significantly above £80,000, the charge equals 100% of Child Benefit. In that case, many families opt out of payments entirely. The claim still exists (protecting NI credits and the child's NI number), but no money changes hands.

For households with the higher earner between £60,000 and £80,000, the decision is more nuanced. The net benefit after the charge is partial but real. Running the HICBC calculator alongside a pension contribution review can show whether small changes to contributions change the position meaningfully.

For households where pension contributions could bring adjusted net income below £60,000, the full Child Benefit can be retained without any charge. That is often the most financially attractive outcome and worth planning before the tax year rather than after.