Opting back into Child Benefit - can I claim for previous year?

PPuzzledParent

A while ago I opted out of child benefit but now want to opt back in, can I claim for previous years or can I only do it going forwards?  I get confused by the Gov website but I understand that the threshold has increased as of this month, I assume that only applies for April 24 onwards?

poppy12345

PPuzzledParent said:

A while ago I opted out of child benefit but now want to opt back in, can I claim for previous years or can I only do it going forwards?  I get confused by the Gov website but I understand that the threshold has increased as of this month, I assume that only applies for April 24 onwards?

No you can't. It can be backdated for a maximum of 3 months. Yes, the changes after from this month.how-to-claim

Yamor

The thresholds only changed from April 2024.

Assuming you simply elected not to receive your Child Benefit payments, but kept the claim alive, then you can revoke that election.
If you are going to be entitled to keep at least some of the Child Benefit, then you can make the revocation up to two years following the end of the tax year.
So, for the 24/25 tax year, the revocation has to be made by 5th April 2027.

The revocation can be made here:
https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge/restart-child-benefit

Icequeen1

poppy12345 said:

PPuzzledParent said:

A while ago I opted out of child benefit but now want to opt back in, can I claim for previous years or can I only do it going forwards?  I get confused by the Gov website but I understand that the threshold has increased as of this month, I assume that only applies for April 24 onwards?

No you can't. It can be backdated for a maximum of 3 months. Yes, the changes after from this month.how-to-claim

As Yamor says, this isn't correct. I think there is quite a lot of confusion between someone who needs to make a claim for child benefit (which can only be backdated for 3 months) and someone who has made an election to opt out of payments and needs to back in. The process and time limits are different for both. The OP sounds like they fall in the latter group.

sheramber

If you have stopped your child benefit payments because of liability to the HICBC but your circumstances change (for example, you have an unexpected reduction in income such that the child benefit is not fully clawed back via the HICBC) then you can restart child benefit payments. You can also request to reinstate payments for the two previous tax years, if applicable, by contacting the child benefit office via telephone. You should make a note of the information provided.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/income-tax/high-income-child-benefit-charge

peteuk

sheramber said:

If you have stopped your child benefit payments because of liability to the HICBC but your circumstances change (for example, you have an unexpected reduction in income such that the child benefit is not fully clawed back via the HICBC) then you can restart child benefit payments. You can also request to reinstate payments for the two previous tax years, if applicable, by contacting the child benefit office via telephone. You should make a note of the information provided.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/income-tax/high-income-child-benefit-charge

However, as the new rules apply from April 24, you wont be able to claim for the previous years  if your wages were above the set limits.