PolicyEngine / PolicyEngine/policyengine-uk

Update 2026-27 Child Benefit rates

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Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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Description

PolicyEngine UK currently appears to use forecast-indexed 2026 Child Benefit weekly rates instead of the published 2026-27 rates.

Repro with policyengine[uk]==4.11.0 (policyengine-uk@2.88.20):

from policyengine.tax_benefit_models.uk import uk_latest
for name in [
    "gov.hmrc.child_benefit.amount.eldest",
    "gov.hmrc.child_benefit.amount.additional",
]:
    for value in uk_latest.get_parameter(name).parameter_values:
        if value.start_date.year == 2026:
            print(name, value.value, value.start_date, value.end_date)

Actual 2026 values:

  • gov.hmrc.child_benefit.amount.eldest: 26.935709699992934
  • gov.hmrc.child_benefit.amount.additional: 17.836506423219888

Published 2026-27 weekly rates are:

  • Eldest or only child: 27.05
  • Additional children: 17.90

Sources:

This surfaced while comparing Axiom RuleSpec UK against PolicyEngine over local Enhanced FRS. Positive child-benefit rows return annual respective amounts that imply weekly rates of about 26.9357 and 17.8365, while the generated RuleSpec from the 2026 instrument returns 27.05 and 17.90.

Expected: update the Child Benefit amount parameters for 2026-27, with the correct effective date semantics for the UK tax year / benefit week.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Search the UK parameter catalog for gov.hmrc.child_benefit.amount.eldest and gov.hmrc.child_benefit.amount.additional, then run the reproduction snippet from the issue. Check the 2026-27 effective dates against the linked GOV.UK sources and confirm that the reported weekly values and UK tax-year or benefit-week semantics are correct.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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