Are you a parent short of £27 a week? Here’s how to check

Thousands more parents could earn £27 a week by remembering some paperwork soon after their baby is born.

Child Benefit is an allowance to help raise children. It currently costs £27.05 per week for the first child, and £17.90 per week for each subsequent child.

Official figures show that almost a third of parents of children eligible for child benefit do not claim before their child’s first birthday.

Payments are only deferred for three months, meaning some families could lose hundreds of pounds in the haze of new parenthood.

of Annual publication of the most popular baby names It may serve as a reminder that some parents have other official paperwork to complete.

In order to receive Child Benefit, which is paid every four weeks, one parent must: Making a claim, External. That parent will get National Insurance Credit for the State Pension.

To claim, you need to:

Child Benefit can be claimed within 48 hours of the birth of the child, but can only be delayed for up to three months from the date HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) receives the claim.

In the year By August 2025, more than 6.8 million parents have received child support HMRC information, External.

But 69% claimed the grant before their child’s first birthday, meaning thousands of families may not receive what they could have received.

The tax official said many of them may have opted not to claim, as the benefit was available to high-income parents.

root Child benefit payments for high earners, ExternalIf a parent earns £60,000 a year, the allowance starts to fall. When one of you earns £80,000 you stop altogether.