Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of administering Child Benefit as a joint claim per household.

The Government does not have plans to administer Child Benefit as a working age benefit via the Department for Work and Pensions.

Administering Child Benefit as a joint claim per household could mean finding out the incomes and relationships of all Child Benefit claimants. This would pose administrative burdens on households, who do not currently need to provide this information to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and on HMRC.

As with all Government policy, Child Benefit is kept under regular review.