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What you need to do if your child goes into care

You must tell the Child Benefit Office as soon as your child goes into care. They will then check if you can continue to be paid. You can tell them online by using the link below, or you can call the Child Benefit Helpline.

• Contact details for the Child Benefit Helpline

• Tell the Child Benefit Office online if your child has gone into care Opens new window

First eight weeks in care

You can usually carry on getting Child Benefit for the first eight weeks after your child is taken into care.

If your child is in care after eight weeks

Unless your child is in care because of an illness or disability, Child Benefit payments usually stop after eight weeks.

However, you can make another claim for Child Benefit after eight weeks if any of the following apply:

• your child spends seven or more consecutive days at home and then returns to care, in which case you can claim Child Benefit for the weeks they are at home
• your child spends at least 24 hours at home every week, in which case you are entitled to Child Benefit as long as that continues
  

• How to claim Child Benefit

Your child is in care because of illness or disability

Your child may be in residential accommodation, or at a residential school, because of an illness or disability.

By residential the Child Benefit Office mean accommodation or schooling provided by a local authority or another public body. If this is the only reason they are away from home, you will still get Child Benefit if you regularly spend money on them. This would include money for clothes, books, toys and so on, or travelling costs involved in visiting them.

If your child is away for more than 12 weeks (84 days), and you stop regularly spending money on them, you must tell the Child Benefit Office.

• Child Benefit for children in hospital or residential care

• Contact details for the Child Benefit Office

More useful links

• Child Benefit if your child lives with someone else

Useful contacts

• Money, tax and benefits contacts