In order to claim the Child Tax Credit it is necessary to be responsible for one (or more) qualifying children. This is a young person who normally lives with the claimant, who is under 19 and in full time education, but not university.

Benefits for a child will start when the child is born, will reduce after one year, will be payable to 1 September following their 16th birthday or when they leave full time education.

If the young person is under 18, not at school, registered with the Careers Service and not working, then for a maximum period of 20 weeks CTC will be payable.

If a young person dies the entitlement ceases 8 weeks following death (not exceeding age 19).

If the child has a child of their own, only one claim can be made. If the intermediate parent is under 16 then normally the grandparents would claim for both. If over 16 then the claim would normally only be made by the parent and the grandparent would not be able to claim for their young person. This would require the intermediate parent to be supporting the child.

The source of the information on this page is
Peter Gravestock FTII FCA ATT
(author, lecturer, and fellow member of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Taxation).

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