Child Benefit payment discrepancy

LatchEndian

Just completing my self assessment tax return, as I have done for a good few years now and scratching my head about something which always comes up related to the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

We have three children for which we claim Child Benefit for the entire year (2023-24 in this case).

The self assessment return calculates the "total amount of Child Benefit you and your partner got for the year to 5th April 2024" as £2,901.60, which also matches the Child Benefit tax calculator on the gov.uk website.

However - we only receive £2886.30...

One payment on 6 April 2023 of £207.90, followed by 12 payments of £223.20.

Where does this discrepancy come from? It's the same every single year, and I always have to correct the value calculated on the self assessment form.

Flugelhorn

would it be that the 6th April payments is before the change in benefits / pensions which happens a few days later?

daveyjp

Probably reflects the increase for the new tax year, especially when payment dates don't coincide with the new tax year date. 

LatchEndian

Flugelhorn said:

would it be that the 6th April payments is before the change in benefits / pensions which happens a few days later?

It could be...

The overall discrepancy is £15.30.

The 2023-24 rates were £24 for first child, £15.90 for younger children. So if we look at one week it's 24 + (2 x 15.90) = 55.80.

The 2022-23 rates were £21.80 for first child, £14.45 for younger children. One week would have been 21.80 + (2 x 14.45) = 50.70.

The difference is 55.80 - 50.70 = £5.10.

This happens to be one third of the overall discrepancy, so could it be we are paid for three weeks at the previous rates? Or is that just a fluke ? 

Flugelhorn

LatchEndian said:

Flugelhorn said:

would it be that the 6th April payments is before the change in benefits / pensions which happens a few days later?

It could be...

The overall discrepancy is £15.30.

The 2023-24 rates were £24 for first child, £15.90 for younger children. So if we look at one week it's 24 + (2 x 15.90) = 55.80.

The 2022-23 rates were £21.80 for first child, £14.45 for younger children. One week would have been 21.80 + (2 x 14.45) = 50.70.

The difference is 55.80 - 50.70 = £5.10.

This happens to be one third of the overall discrepancy, so could it be we are paid for three weeks at the previous rates? Or is that just a fluke ? 

other thing is whether the payment is in arrears? so one whole 4 week period would be at lower rate?

Yamor

A few points which should hopefully clear things up for you:

1. The payment you received on 6th April 2023 was the payment which should have been paid on Monday 10th April 2023, but was paid a few days early because of Easter.

2. Child Benefit is always paid 3 weeks in arrears and 1 week in advance. So that payment covered 3 weeks up to 9th April, and 1 week starting 10th April.

3. The rate of Child Benefit increases on the first Monday in the new tax year - i.e., 10th April 2023, so that is why that payment included 3 weeks at the old rates and 1 week at the new rates.

4. The HICBC is calculated based on the amount of Child Benefit received "for" any week in the tax year (not on the payments actually received in the tax year).

5. For HICBC purposes, a week is treated as being in a tax year if the Monday at the start of the week falls within the tax year.

6. The HICBC for 23/24 is therefore based on the benefit entitlement for the period 10th April 2023 to 7th April 2024, and therefore the figure prefilled on your self assessment return (and the figure on the HMRC calculator) is correct, and you should not be changing it.