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Children's Handbook Scotland | 2023/24

4. Tax credits

• The amount of tax credits

Child tax credit (CTC) remains payable for a child, provided s/he normally lives with you.1Reg 3 CTC Regs HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) guidance says this means that the child ‘regularly, usually, typically’ lives with you, and that this allows for temporary or occasional absences.2para 02202 TCTM

You remain entitled to CTC if your child is in hospital on a temporary basis, because your child should still be treated as normally living with you. S/he also continues to count as a dependent child for working tax credit (WTC) purposes.

 

1     Reg 3 CTC Regs »

2     para 02202 TCTM »

The amount of tax credits

If your child is in hospital, you remain entitled to the disabled child and severely disabled child elements (see here) in your CTC, even if your child’s disability living allowance, personal independence payment or adult disability payment has stopped. This should not have happened if your child is under 18, but may have happened if s/he was 18 or over when s/he entered hospital.1Reg 8(2)-(4) CTC Regs

If you are getting help with childcare costs in your WTC (the childcare element), this may change if your child is in hospital for a prolonged period. If your childcare costs stop or go down by £10 or more over a period of four weeks, you must let HMRC know about this change.

Make sure you report changes to HMRC to avoid underpayments or overpayments.

 

1     Reg 8(2)-(4) CTC Regs »