Everything You Need to Know About the Canada Child Benefit

The Canada Child Benefit (CCB) is a non-taxable monthly payment made to eligible families to assist with the costs of raising children under the age of 18. Here’s everything you need to know about how it works, who is eligible, and how much you can receive.

Eligibility

To qualify for the CCB, you must:

Live with the child, and the child must be under 18 years old.
Be primarily responsible for the care and upbringing of the child.
Be a resident of Canada for tax purposes.

Additionally, if you share custody, each parent may be eligible to receive 50% of the benefit they would get if the child lived with them full time, provided the child lives with each parent between 40% to 60% of the time (Canada.ca).

How to Apply

You can apply for the CCB through the CRA’s ‘My Account’ online service, by mail using Form RC66, or directly when registering a birth. The application must include proof of birth, residency, and your immigration status if applicable. The processing time typically ranges from 8 weeks for online applications to 11 weeks for applications submitted by mail (Canada.ca) (National Bank).

Payment Amounts

The amount you can receive depends on your adjusted family net income (AFNI), the number of children, and their ages. For the period of July 2023 to June 2024, the maximum annual amounts are:

$7,437 per child under 6 years of age.
$6,275 per child aged 6 to 17.

These amounts decrease if your AFNI is above $34,863, with a more significant reduction kicking in if your AFNI exceeds $75,537 (Canada.ca) (Wealthsimple: Your money’s worth more.).

Payment Dates

CCB payments are made monthly, and if your total annual benefit is less than $240, you will receive a lump sum in July. If you do not receive your payment on the expected date, the CRA advises waiting five working days before contacting them (Canada.ca).

Additional Benefits

Families with a child eligible for the disability tax credit can also receive the Child Disability Benefit, integrated with the CCB, providing up to an additional $3,173 annually per child (Canada.ca).

For more detailed information on the CCB, you can visit the Canada Revenue Agency’s official CCB page.

Calculate your payments

Use the child and family benefits calculator to help plan your budget. (You will be re-directed to CRA site)

Shared custody and your payments

Each parent with shared custody will get 50% of what they would have gotten if they had full custody of the child and the amount is calculated based on their own adjusted family net income.

The CRA will not split the amount using other percentages, or give the full amount to one of the parents if the CRA considers you to have shared custody.

If a child only lives with you part time, go to Custody arrangements and your benefits to find out if you are considered to have shared custody.

Payments are recalculated in July

Every July, your benefit payment is recalculated based on your adjusted family net income from the previous year. CCB is indexed to inflation.

For example, payments from:

July 2023 to June 2024: based on your adjusted family net income from 2022
July 2022 to June 2023: based on your adjusted family net income from 2021

In other words, a change in your income in 2022 will only be reflected in your payments starting in July 2023.

If your payment changed or stopped in another month, go to If your payment stopped or changed.

Related provincial and territorial benefits

Some provinces and territories offer additional assistance to help with the cost of raising a family.

Some of these benefits are added to your CCB payment and paid with it, while others are paid separately.

Select your province or territory:

CCB young child supplement

The CCB young child supplement is paid to families who were entitled to receive a Canada child benefit (CCB) payment in January, April, July or October 2021 for each child under the age of six. The amount you receive depends on your family’s net income in 2019 and 2020. You and your spouse or common-law partner must file your 2019 and 2020 tax returns to get all four payments.

For more information, go to CCB Young Child supplement.

Children with a disability

If your child is eligible for the disability tax credit, you may also be eligible for the child disability benefit.

For the period of July 2023 to June 2024, you could get up to $3,173 ($264.41 per month) for each child who is eligible for the disability tax credit.

Go to Child disability benefit