PARENTS and carers have been told that they have until midnight tonight to renew child benefits or risk losing their payments.
The news affects parents able to claim Child Benefit for kids aged between 16-20.
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If your child is in that age group and in full-time education then you may still be eligible for Child Benefit.
Areas of full time-education that qualify for the benefit after 16 include A-levels, NVQs, and home education.
They may also qualify for the benefit if they go into training and the training is unpaid.
A spokesperson from HMRC said: “Last week, teenagers across the UK received their GSCE or Scottish National Certificate results and many are now considering their future.
“If they decide to continue their full-time education or training, parents or carers will be eligible to continue receiving Child Benefit payments for their child.”
The spokesperson warned that you need to notify HMRC today, or you will automatically stop receiving the payments.
How do I notify HMRC?
You can either update your Child Benefit records via GOV.UK. or return the 297b form that should have been sent to you by HMRC.
To use the online service, you need a Government Gateway user ID and password.
If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you use the service.
Once you have notified HMRC you won’t need to continue to update it – unless your child’s situation changes.
Instead you will receive the payment until the end date of their course, or they reach the age of 20.
If your child enters work then you will stop receiving the benefit.
What is Child Benefit?
Child benefit is paid to families with kids up to the age of 16 – or 20 if they are in full-time education or registered on a government-approved course.
It’s paid every four weeks at a rate of £84.60 for your eldest child, and £56 for each child thereafter.
There’s no limit to how many children you can claim for.
However, only one person can get it for each child.
It comes as half-a-million Brits are missing out on Child Benefit payments worth £1,500 a year.
Around £1.75 billion of the benefit has been left unclaimed in the past year, figures from charity Turn2Us have revealed.
Thousands of parents may benefit from a Child Benefit refund.
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