Thousands of parents told to 'urgently check' for government money they could now be owed

Financial guru Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert (MSE) has issued a warning to thousands of families to 'urgently check' if they could be owed money from the government, following a major change to Child Benefit announced in the Spring Budget.

Many parents who were previously above the High Income Child Benefit threshold might not realise that they are now eligible for the benefit, which is paid to more than seven million families across the country to help with childcare costs. The Money Saving Expert team said: "From April, the high income Child Benefit charge threshold was increased so you (or your partner) can now earn more than £60,000 a year before getting hit with the charge"

Previously, parents were slapped with the High Income Child Benefit Charge if they earned over £50,000. However, there are now more than 100,000 parents who could stand to benefit after a change to the threshold.

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Now, parents earning up to £80,000 stand to receive Child Benefit payments, with a taper in place after £60,000. In a post on X, MSE said: "100,000s of families will benefit from raised Child Benefit high income thresholds. So urgently check if you need to: Manually opt back in; or register and opt out of payments to get national insurance credits towards your state pension."

Below is a breakdown of the new Child Benefit rates:

A parent that is earning £70,000, who would not have qualified for Child Benefit previously, can now apply to start receiving it, though they will not receive the full payment. Instead, they would receive around half the usual payment, which would still work out as £600 for one child over the course of one year.

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