Child benefit claims rise after income rule change

“The boost in claimants in April is good news,” said Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell.

“It’s likely that the announcement by the government had a dual effect: it made more people eligible for the benefit and so they claimed, but it also put child benefit in the news and reminded other parents who were already eligible that they should claim it.”

But she added that “we’re coming from a low base” as the benefit is “chronically underclaimed”.

The latest annual figures show the number of families getting child benefit payments has dropped to its lowest level since records began, she said.

A total of 683,000 families, external, accounting for 1.05 million children, opted out of getting the payments because they would have had to pay the HICBC.

“If these families had been eligible they could have claimed £1.15bn in additional support,” Ms Suter said.