Child benefits: how long did you wait?

I applied on the 15th September and got my first payment by the 19th so that doesn't make sense! x

I got mine about 4 days after I made the claim 🙈 I think because I’m already in receipt of benefits it helped 🤔

I remember mine not taking long to come through and they just backdated it to the day my son was born.

Thats insane! I added my baby onto my existing claim and was paid for her like a week later with my usual payment

Mine says the same thing, December to hear back as they’re back logged with claims 😣

I applied for mine on 14th sept and was paid 19th. How weird x

I done mine last Thursday and was accepted today …

5 months before money arrived.... but the back date it. Pay you from birth

Sorry can I check I follow this correctly. I have a 5 year old so already set up for child benefit. My second baby is due in November… can I apply now? I thought baby has to be born and registered first to claim?

@Adelle you can't claim for them until they are born and registered that's correct.

@Nicole thanks! Gosh this baby brain thing is real 😂😂

Thank you everyone. I assume that if you’ve never claimed any benefits it takes longer for them to process it. I hope they come back to me before December.

@Abby I really hope we hear from them sooner. December is so far off and I would really appreciate the money right now. 😫

I read that if you apply online it can take up to 3 days whereas by post it can take up to 3 months!

@Nicole I applied online, I didn’t even know you could do so by post

Looks like things have changed I applied by post with my first and had never applied for any benefits before but it still was processed fairly quickly last year. Perhaps they've got a backlog of claims to get through at the moment.