Child Benefit when your child turns 16

You can get Child Benefit until your child turns 20 if they’re in certain types of education or training and they:

  • are accepted onto the course before they turn 19
  • do not get Universal Credit

You must tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about their education or training. Only the person who is claiming Child Benefit can do this.

You may be sent a letter in your child’s last year at school asking you to tell HMRC about your child’s plans.

Your Child Benefit automatically stops on 31 August on or after your child’s 16th birthday if:

  • they leave education or training
  • you do not tell HMRC that they’re staying in education or training
  • they’re staying in a type of education or training where you cannot get Child Benefit

This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).

Check if your child’s education qualifies

You can get Child Benefit if your child is in full time non-advanced education.

Full time is more than an average of 12 hours a week of supervised study or course-related work experience. If your child has an illness or disability, they can do fewer hours if that’s appropriate for them.

Non-advanced education includes:

  • A levels or similar, for example International Baccalaureate
  • T levels
  • GCSEs
  • Scottish Highers
  • NVQs and most vocational qualifications up to level 3
  • home education
  • study programmes in England
  • a pre-apprenticeship

Education where you cannot get Child Benefit

You cannot get Child Benefit if your child is studying for a:

  • university degree
  • BTEC Higher National Certificate
  • pre-degree course - for example a foundation diploma or access to higher education course
  • Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND) level 7
  • Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE)

Check if your child’s training qualifies

You can get Child Benefit if your child is doing an unpaid ‘approved training’ course.

Approved training includes:

  • in Wales: Foundation Apprenticeships, Traineeships or the Jobs Growth Wales+ scheme
  • in Scotland: the No One Left Behind programme
  • in Northern Ireland: PEACEPLUS Youth Programme 3.2, Training for Success or Skills for Life and Work

Training where you cannot get Child Benefit

You cannot get Child Benefit if your child is:

  • on an apprenticeship (unless it’s a Foundation Apprenticeship in Wales)
  • doing a course with an employer’s agreement - for example in order to get a job with that employer, or to get skills for a job they’re already in
  • doing a training course that is part of a job contract

Tell HMRC your child is staying in education or training

You must tell HMRC if your child is staying in education or training.

When your child leaves education or training

If your child completes their course, payments will stop at whichever of these dates comes first:

  • the end of February
  • 31 May
  • 31 August
  • 30 November

If they leave the course before it’s complete, you must tell HMRC that your child is leaving education or training to avoid overpayments. If you get payments that you should not have, you might need to pay them back.

If your child takes a temporary break from education or training

Contact HMRC. You might get Child Benefit during the break.

Apply for an extension

You could get Child Benefit for 20 weeks (called an ‘extension’) if your child leaves education or training and registers with either:

  • their local careers service, Connexions (or a similar organisation in Northern Ireland, the European Union, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein)
  • the Ministry of Defence, for example to join the armed forces

You can either:

Your child must:

  • be 16 or 17
  • work less than 24 hours a week
  • not get certain benefits (for example Universal Credit)

You must have been entitled to Child Benefit immediately before they left the education or training and apply for it within 3 months of them leaving.

If anything else changes

Find out how to report changes that affect your Child Benefit.

If you cannot report online

You can contact HMRC.

Related content