Income has dropped - can I back claim Child benefit? If so how?

alivingstone

We have 4 children: 17, 16, 5 & 3.
2 older ones are still in school doing A'Levels.
We had previously received Child Benefit of approx. £244 a month for them.
When the earnings threshold kicked in I found my gross earnings from 2 jobs just over the £60k mark as I had worked a lot of O/T, received a good bonus and put a load of hours into my 2nd job and I was no longer eligible for Child Benefit. (My wife does not work and has no income.)
To cut a long story short we signed off child benefit and had to pay 6 months of benefits back in my tax code last year so took a double blow!
(Don't even start me on our friends who both earn over £40k and still get full child benefit!)


We are no longer claiming Child Benefit - I was told I would not need to complete a Self Assessment for 2014/2015 year as we did not claim Child Benefit during the year.


During the 2014/15 tax year I lost a lot of O/T & bonus from my main job and income from my 2nd job has been slashed.
P60's for 14/15 show my gross for both jobs has fallen by 20%. We would have been entitled to all of our Child Benefits of over £3200 in 2014/2015.


Is there any way I can claim this back somehow or have we lost it as it wasn't claimed during the year??

sheramber

Contact the child benefit office. I have read that you should be able to claim back the amount for 2014/15.

This is one reason for not opting out but paying the charge through self assessment.

You can always put the money in a separate bank account and use it to pay the charge if due.

if no charge due, you have the money in the bank to use.

xylophone

And should you start earning more again, don't forget pension contributions to reduce adjusted net income.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/28/child-benefit-pension-contributions-higher-earners