How does Child Benefit get clawed back?

The High Income Child Benefit Charge

If you or your partner earns over £60,000 (2026/27), the Child Benefit you claim starts to be clawed back through a tax charge called the High Income Child Benefit Charge — universally known as HICBC. The charge is paid by the higher earner in the household via Self Assessment, regardless of which partner actually claims the Child Benefit.

The taper runs from £60,000 to £80,000. At £60,000 the charge is zero; at £80,000 the charge equals the entire Child Benefit received in the year. The taper rate is 1% of the Child Benefit per £200 of income above £60,000. If your adjusted net income is £70,000, you owe back 50% of the Child Benefit. At £80,000+, you owe back 100%.

Why the household structure matters

The charge is calculated on the highest earner's individual income — not the household total. Two partners earning £55,000 each (household income £110,000) pay zero HICBC. One partner earning £90,000 with a non-earning partner (household income £90,000) pays the full Child Benefit back via HICBC. This asymmetry is one of the most-criticised features of the UK family tax system but remains in force in 2026/27.

The charge applies to the partner with the higher adjusted net income whether or not they are the parent or carer of the child. A new partner moving into a household with existing Child Benefit can pick up the HICBC liability if their income is highest in the household.

The "still claim, then pay back" choice

You have two options when income crosses £60,000:

1. Continue claiming and pay HICBC via Self Assessment. This preserves your National Insurance credit toward State Pension (claimed via Child Benefit registration) and gives the child a National Insurance number automatically at age 16. The cashflow is a wash if you sit at £80,000+ — you receive the benefit then pay it back through your tax bill — but the NI credits are valuable for stay-at-home parents.
2. Opt out of receiving Child Benefit but still register the claim. This avoids the cashflow hassle of paying back through Self Assessment while preserving the NI credits. This is the standard recommendation when one partner is staying out of the workforce to care for children.

Pension contributions reduce HICBC too

HICBC is calculated on adjusted net income, the same measure used for the 60% tax trap. Pension contributions, salary sacrifice, and Gift Aid donations all reduce ANI and can pull your income back below the £60,000 threshold or down the taper. For households with multiple children, this can be a very effective rescue: each £1,000 contribution reduces ANI by £1,000 and recovers 5% of the Child Benefit cliff.

Related on this site

Model the actual numbers using the Child Benefit / HICBC calculator, see whether you cross the registration threshold using the adjusted net income calculator, and use the salary sacrifice calculator to see how pension contributions can rescue the cliff.

The short answer

If the higher earner in a couple has adjusted net income above £60,000, the High Income Child Benefit Charge starts to claw back Child Benefit. By £80,000, the charge can wipe out the full annual Child Benefit amount.

Why the charge surprises people

• It uses the higher earner’s ANI, not combined household income.
• A pension contribution can change ANI and therefore the charge.
• The family can keep receiving Child Benefit but then repay it through the tax system.

Best next pages

Use Child Benefit and HICBC Calculator for the actual charge and Adjusted Net Income Calculator if you need to understand the threshold number first.

Official source: GOV.UK Child Benefit tax calculator guidance.

How the 1%-per-£200 taper actually works

The clawback is not a cliff edge — it is a gradual taper. The rule is precise: for every £200 of adjusted net income above £60,000, you repay 1% of the Child Benefit you received that year. Because there are 100 lots of £200 between £60,000 and £80,000, the charge reaches exactly 100% of the benefit at £80,000 and stays there for any higher income.

A useful shortcut: subtract £60,000 from your adjusted net income, divide by £200, and that is the percentage of Child Benefit you lose. At £64,000 you lose 20%; at £70,000 you lose 50%; at £76,000 you lose 80%. HMRC rounds the income figure down to the nearest £100 before doing the sum, which can shave a little off the charge near a band edge.

Worked example: a £70,000 earner with two children

Take a household where the higher earner has an adjusted net income of £70,000 and the family claims Child Benefit for two children. Child Benefit is paid at a higher weekly rate for the eldest child and a lower rate for each additional child, so a two-child family receives roughly £2,200–£2,300 across a full year (check the current weekly rates on GOV.UK for the exact figure).

• Income above the threshold: £70,000 − £60,000 = £10,000.
• Number of £200 steps: £10,000 ÷ £200 = 50.
• HICBC = 50% of the year's Child Benefit.

So on roughly £2,250 of Child Benefit, the higher earner would face a charge of about £1,125, payable through Self Assessment (or the payroll route below). The family still keeps the other half. This is why few families at £70,000 should opt out of payments altogether: at exactly £80,000 the maths reaches 100% and opting out becomes a reasonable cashflow choice, but anywhere along the taper you are giving up real money if you stop the payments.

How HMRC collects the charge

Historically the only way to pay HICBC was to register for Self Assessment, declare the Child Benefit received, and pay the charge as part of your annual tax bill by 31 January. That remains the default, and the higher earner is the one who must register even if the benefit is paid into their partner's bank account.

To remove that admin burden, the government has introduced an option to collect HICBC directly through your PAYE tax code, so employed taxpayers can pay the charge in monthly instalments without filing a return purely for this reason. If you use this route you do not need a Self Assessment record solely for HICBC, though you will still need one if you have other untaxed income. Either way the liability is the same; only the timing and the paperwork differ.

Deadline trap: the duty to register sits with you, not HMRC. If your income crosses £60,000 part-way through a year, you must tell HMRC by 5 October following the end of that tax year. Missing this can trigger “failure to notify” penalties on top of the charge itself, which is one of the most common ways families are caught out.

Protecting your State Pension with NI credits

The single most important reason to register for Child Benefit — even if you tick the box to receive £0 to avoid the charge — is the National Insurance credits that come with it. A parent who claims Child Benefit for a child under 12 receives Class 3 NI credits automatically, and these count towards the 35 qualifying years needed for a full new State Pension.

This matters most when one partner is out of paid work to care for children: without the credits, those years are gaps in their NI record that can permanently reduce their State Pension. The fix is simple but easy to overlook — the lower-earning or non-earning partner should be the named claimant so the credits attach to the person who needs them, while the higher earner simply pays (or opts out of) the charge. If credits have been missed in past years, it is sometimes possible to transfer them retrospectively using form CF411A.