- Parents need to extend their claim if their 16-19 year-old is staying in education
Parents have less than two weeks to tell HMRC if their 16 to 19-year-old child is staying in education – or risk losing their child benefit, the tax office warns.
Thousands of teenagers will be making the final decisions on their next steps this week after they receive their GCSE results tomorrow.
Parents need to extend their claim for child benefit by August 31 if their child is over 16 and staying in approved education or training.
Staying on: Parents can continue to claim child benefit of up to £1,331 per year if their 16-19 year-old is continuing their education – but they need to inform HMRC
The education must be full-time, which means more than an average of 12 hours a week, and includes A-levels, Scottish Highers and the International Baccalaureate.
Approved training should be unpaid and includes programmes such as foundation apprenticeships in Wales, Training for Success in Northern Ireland and No One Left Behind in Scotland.
The payments are worth up to £1,331 a year for the first child, and up to £881 a year for every additional child. More than 522,000 parents have extended the claim so far.
Visit gov.uk/child-benefit-16-19 to tell HMRC if your child is staying in education or training, or call 0300 200 3100.
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