Claiming child benefit from the U.K if you are in NZ on a temporary visa?

[Destiny]

Hi

Does anyone know about claiming child benefit from the U.K if you are in NZ on a temporary visa? It's really confusing knowing who we have to inform about being out of the county.

Thanks Destiny.

[JandM]

Here's a link to a downloadable government pamphlet. In it, there are details of addresses and help phone numbers.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/ch5_notes.pdf

It says in there

Going abroad permanently
You must tell us straight away if you, your child, children, or all of
you leave the UK permanently or for an absence that is likely to last
for more than a year when you leave.
If you are going abroad permanently but your child is staying in the
UK and living with someone else, the person they are living with
should get in touch with us to claim Child Benefit.

Going abroad temporarily
You will be treated as being abroad temporarily if your absence is
unlikely to last more than a year when you leave.
If you go abroad temporarily, you can continue to get Child Benefit:
• for up to eight weeks, whatever the reason for your absence
• for the first 12 weeks you are abroad if you go or stay abroad
because you are, or a member of your family is, receiving
treatment for an illness or disability or because a member of your
family has died.
You can make a new claim to Child Benefit while you are abroad
temporarily, so long as you are ordinarily resident in the UK.

[IanW99]

Here's a link to a downloadable government pamphlet. In it, there are details of addresses and help phone numbers.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/ch5_notes.pdf
...

There is actually an agreement with NZ and UK for child benefit which changes the entitlement i.e. you are able to continue to claim UK child benefit for the first 26 weeks whilst away.

You can find the details here:- Social Security Agreement between the UK and NZ (pdf) to see if you will be eligible.

Basically, if your intent is to leave the UK temporarily then you can carry on claiming but if you are leaving permanently then you can't.

If you are only applying for a temporary visa then you should be able to claim.

Ian

[JandM]

You are great source of knowledge, Ian! Are you professionally involved in all this stuff, or just a compulsive finder out of useful things?

[IanW99]

You are great source of knowledge, Ian! Are you professionally involved in all this stuff, or just a compulsive finder out of useful things?

Well I'm certainly not professionally involved in all this stuff, hopefully I'm not a compulsive finder either

Really just trying to be a helpful as others are on the forum and it really is a great forum to be involved with, but thanks for the compliment anyway

Ian

[Destiny]

Thanks so much for all your help with these great links. There really is so much to think about that I don't know where to start. I really do appreciate all the help that I have recieved on this forum. It's great to know that there are other people out there who have survived the move. I hope that after our move I will be able to help out too.

Thanks Destiny