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What is 'residential care'?

This is accommodation provided by the local authority for your child because he or she has mental or physical disabilities.

It can also be accommodation that the local authority provides because your child’s health is likely to significantly suffer or worsen if accommodation isn’t provided.

It's not the same as when the local authority or the Health and Social Services Board care for a child who isn't ill or disabled.

You can find out more about Child Benefit for children who are in care but who aren’t ill or disabled by following the link below.

• Child Benefit if your child is in care - more information

What happens if your child goes into hospital or residential care

If your child is in hospital or residential care for less than 12 weeks the Child Benefit Office will carry on paying Child Benefit. If it’s longer, you’ll only get Child Benefit if you or your partner spend money on them regularly.

You might spend money on:

• travelling to visit them
• pocket money
• clothes, sweets, toys or books

What your partner spends only counts if you're living together, and are either married or in a civil partnership.

If your child didn't live with you before going into hospital or residential care

You can sometimes get Child Benefit if your child didn't live with you before they went into hospital or residential care. But it depends on:

• the reasons why your child wasn’t living with you
• whether you're still spending money on your child and it's at least as much as the amount of Child Benefit you get for them

It doesn't matter whether they're in hospital for more or less than 12 weeks.

• Child Benefit rates - find out what the current rates are

If your child has two or more stays in hospital or residential care in a short period of time

Your child might have several stays in hospital or residential care, for example if they've got to go in for a series of treatments. If there are 28 days or less between each visit, add together all the days in hospital or residential care. You need to do this to work out how long the hospital stay is. For example, your child might:

• be in hospital for 80 days
• come back home for five days
• go back to hospital for seven days

Add together both stays in hospital - 80 days and seven days. This will tell you how long your child has been in hospital altogether - 87 days.

If your child gets medical treatment in hospital abroad

You may get Child Benefit if your child is temporarily abroad getting medical treatment in hospital. ‘Temporarily abroad’ means that when your child left the UK their time away wasn’t going to be for more than 52 weeks.

If the illness or disability started before your child left the UK

You'll carry on getting Child Benefit for up to 12 weeks if your child goes abroad temporarily to get medical treatment for:

• an illness, either mental or physical, which started before they left the UK
• a disability which started before they left the UK

You can sometimes carry on getting Child Benefit after 12 weeks if your child is still getting treatment abroad. But you'll need to come back to the UK to still qualify and you or your partner will need to spend money on them regularly.

You might spend money on:

• travelling to visit them
• pocket money
• clothes, sweets, toys or books

What your partner spends only counts if you're living together, and are either married or in a civil partnership.

If your child becomes ill or disabled after they leave the UK

Your child might become ill or disabled after they leave the UK, for example during a holiday abroad. If they get treatment in a hospital abroad so their return to the UK is delayed, you'll carry on getting Child Benefit. You can get it for up to 12 weeks from the date they left the UK.

Keeping the Child Benefit Office up to date

You must tell the Child Benefit Office if:

• your child is in hospital or residential care for more than 12 weeks and you will not be regularly spending money on them
• you're going abroad with your child and you are likely to be abroad for more than eight weeks
• your child becomes ill while they are abroad and is away from the UK for more than 12 weeks

You can tell them online by using the link below, or you can call the Child Benefit Helpline.

• Tell the Child Benefit Office online about your child's stay in hospital Opens new window

• Tell the Child Benefit Office online about your child's stay abroad Opens new window

• Contact details for the Child Benefit Helpline

More useful links

• Tax credits if you or a member of the family goes into hospital

Useful contacts

• Money, tax and benefits contacts