Child Benefit & the High Income Charge.
Child Benefit is the simplest UK benefit to claim — but its interaction with the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) confuses even high-earning, financially literate parents. Here's how the £60k–£80k taper works in 2025/26, and why opting out of payment is almost always a mistake.
By the editorial team Updated May 2026 9 min read
The basics
Child Benefit is paid to one parent or carer for each child they're responsible for. The 2025/26 rates are:
- £26.05/week for the eldest or only child — £1,354.60/year.
- £17.25/week for each additional child — £897.00/year per extra child.
Payments arrive every four weeks. There's no upper savings limit, no income threshold to qualify, and the amount doesn't depend on whether you're working. It is — for parents who don't trigger HICBC — about as close to universal as the UK welfare system gets.
Who can claim
- You're responsible for a child under 16, or under 20 in approved education or training.
- You live in the UK (or are abroad but still ordinarily resident in some narrow circumstances).
- Only one person claims for a given child — usually the parent the child lives with most.
- You haven't got "No Recourse to Public Funds" stamped on a visa.
The High Income Child Benefit Charge — what changed in 2024
For over a decade the threshold was £50,000. From the 2024/25 tax year onwards:
- The charge starts at £60,000 of "adjusted net income."
- It tapers 1% of Child Benefit for every £200 above £60,000.
- The full claw-back kicks in at £80,000.
So a household where the higher earner is on £70,000 pays back half of the Child Benefit. Above £80,000, the charge equals 100% of the Child Benefit — i.e. the net amount you keep is zero.
"Adjusted net income" — what counts
Adjusted net income is your total taxable income, minus:
- Pension contributions made gross (e.g. into a workplace scheme via salary sacrifice).
- Pension contributions you made net to a personal pension, grossed up by your basic rate tax relief.
- Gift Aid donations, grossed up.
- Trading losses.
Salary sacrifice is the most common lever. Push £6,000 of salary into pension and your adjusted net income drops by £6,000 — potentially crossing back below the HICBC threshold.
Worked HICBC example
Three children. Sara earns £75,000. Her partner earns £30,000. The "higher earner" rule applies regardless of who claims Child Benefit, so Sara is on the hook even if the payments arrive in her partner's account.
- Annual Child Benefit: £1,354.60 (first) + 2 × £897.00 = £3,148.60.
- Sara's ANI: £75,000. Excess over £60,000: £15,000.
- £15,000 / £200 = 75. So 75% of the Child Benefit is clawed back.
- HICBC = £3,148.60 × 0.75 = £2,361.45.
- Net retained Child Benefit: £787.15.
If Sara contributes an extra £15,000 into her workplace pension via salary sacrifice, her ANI drops to £60,000 and HICBC disappears entirely. She also saves higher-rate tax and NI on the pension contribution — a triple win, provided she's comfortable with the long-term pension commitment.
Why you should still claim, even at £80k+
This is the single most common mistake parents make. The reasoning is: "we earn over £80,000, HICBC will claw it all back, so why bother claiming?" Three reasons:
1. National Insurance credits
Claiming Child Benefit gives the person who claims (usually the parent at home with the child) a National Insurance credit for each week of the year the child is under 12. NI credits build entitlement to the State Pension. Miss a year, and your final pension drops by 1/35 — roughly £6/week, or £312/year for life.
Over a typical career break of, say, 8 years for two children, that's eight NI years gone. State Pension reduced by about £50/week = £2,600/year for the rest of your retired life. The maths is brutally lopsided in favour of claiming.
2. Backdating only goes back 3 months
If you don't claim and only realise the NI-credit problem later, you can backdate by at most 3 months. The CB18 application form has been there since 2024 to apply for retroactive NI credits without the cash, but it's a workaround — claiming when your first child is born remains the cleanest path.
3. You can opt out of payment, separately from claiming
The trick that high earners often miss: you can claim Child Benefit (and trigger the NI credits) without receiving payments (and triggering HICBC). On the application or your existing claim, choose "I don't want payments" and the money never hits your bank. No HICBC, no Self Assessment headache, full NI credits.
If your income drops later (career break, lower-paying job), you can switch payments back on with a single message via the HMRC app.
How HICBC is collected
Two routes:
- Self Assessment: register, complete a tax return each January, pay HICBC alongside any other tax due.
- PAYE: from 2025, HMRC will collect HICBC through your tax code if your sole reason for needing to file Self Assessment is HICBC. Tens of thousands of higher earners stopped needing Self Assessment as a result.
If you've been getting Child Benefit without declaring HICBC and earn over £60,000, HMRC catches up via Connect (their data-matching tool) on average 2–3 years later. Penalties on top of the original charge are common, so don't ignore the letter when it arrives — appeal or pay, but don't bury your head.
Will Child Benefit ever become universal again?
HICBC has been controversial since it launched in 2013. The Treasury under successive governments has resisted unwinding it (the savings are now well above £1bn/year), but the rise in the threshold to £60,000 in 2024 was an acknowledgement that fiscal drag had pulled hundreds of thousands of middle-income parents into the charge unexpectedly. Watch the Budget each November and Spring Statement each March for further movement.