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What you need to do

You will need to tell the Child Benefit Office as soon as possible if your child or a child you've been responsible for has died. Tell them the exact date of death too. The Child Benefit Office will record this information and also pass it on to other parts of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that need to know. That way you'll only have to get in touch with HMRC once.

You can get in touch:

• online
• by calling the Child Benefit Helpline
• by writing to the Child Benefit Office

• Tell the Child Benefit Office online if your child has died Opens new window

• Contact details for Child Benefit

You're already getting Child Benefit

The Child Benefit Office generally carries on paying your Child Benefit for eight weeks from the date that your child died.

If you don't tell the Child Benefit Office that they've died until after the eight weeks, they might end up paying you too much.

If your child would have been 20 during the eight week period

If your child would have turned 20 before the end of the eight weeks, there's a different way of working out how long you'll get Child Benefit for.

The Child Benefit Office can only pay Child Benefit up to the Monday after the week in which they would have been 20. If your child's birthday would have fallen on a Monday, that's the date they'll pay up to.

If your child dies before the end of the week they were born in

If your child dies before the end of the week they were born in, the Child Benefit Office may pay Child Benefit for eight weeks. They'll start the eight weeks from the Monday after the day your child died. The payments will stop after the eight weeks.

If your child dies before you've made a claim for Child Benefit

If your child died before you'd claimed Child Benefit for them you can still make a claim.

You may get up to eight weeks' worth of Child Benefit from the date your child died. The number of weeks you get depends on when the Child Benefit Office gets your claim.

What you need to do

Make a claim as quickly as possible. The Child Benefit Office can only consider backdating your claim for up to three months from when they receive it. The later you claim, the less likely you'll get the maximum amount of payments.

If you need help with working out whether you're in time to claim, you can contact the Child Benefit Helpline.

• Contact details for the Child Benefit Helpline

Information you need to send

When you send in your Child Benefit claim attach a separate sheet of paper, telling the Child Benefit Office the date of your child's death. Also put your name and address on the separate sheet - and your National Insurance number, if you have one.

You'll need to send your child's birth or adoption certificate with your claim form, but there's no need to send their death certificate too.

• Child Benefit and birth and adoption certificates

If your child is stillborn

You won't be able to claim Child Benefit if your child was stillborn. This is because Child Benefit can only be paid if a child was alive when they were born.

If your child was stillborn the doctor or midwife will have given you a medical certificate of stillbirth.

More useful links

• Contact details for the Child Bereavement Charity

• What to do after a death

• Bereavement benefit information

Useful contacts

• Money, tax and benefits contacts