The CCB Maximum Is Now $8,157 — and Why Your October 20 Payment Might Be Smaller

If you have a child under 18 and the money that landed in your account this summer was smaller than you expected, nothing is broken and nothing is late. Your Canada Child Benefit was recalculated on July 20. It is recalculated every July, and most parents only notice months later.

For the benefit year that runs from July 2026 to June 2027, the Canada Revenue Agency has set the maximum at $8,157 per year for each child under 6 and $6,883 per year for each child aged 6 to 17. The next payment date is October 20, 2026.

The number that actually decides your amount is not the maximum. It is your 2025 adjusted family net income. And there is one thing that stops the payments entirely, quietly, with no warning letter first: an unfiled tax return. Yours or your spouse’s.

What actually changed on July 20

Two things happen every July, and they pull in opposite directions.

The first is indexation. The CRA raises the maximums to keep pace with inflation. This year that was worth up to $160 more per child under 6 and up to $135 more per child aged 6 to 17 — roughly two per cent.

The second is the income test, and it is the one that moves real money. Your July 2026 to June 2027 payments are calculated from the adjusted family net income on your 2025 return. If your household earned more in 2025 than in 2024 — a raise, a second job, a partner returning to work, a one-time payout — your benefit fell in July and will stay lower until July 2027. The CRA is explicit that a change in income this year only affects your payments starting the following July.

The maximums are ceilings, not typical payments

You receive the full amount only if your adjusted family net income is $38,237 or less. Above that, the benefit is reduced on a sliding scale that gets steeper the more children you have — 7 per cent of the excess for one child, up to 23 per cent for four or more. A second, gentler reduction tier kicks in above $82,847.

This is why you should be sceptical of any site that tells you what your CCB deposit will be. Nobody can tell you that without your 2025 return in front of them. The only place your actual figure exists is your CRA My Account benefit notice.

The chart above is the whole raise. If your payment went down in July, indexation is not the reason. Your income is.

The dates left in 2026

CCB payment dates: October 20, November 20, and December 11, 2026. December is early, as it is every year. Do not read anything into it.

October is a crowded month for CRA deposits, which is part of why people get confused about what arrived and what did not. The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit — the quarterly payment that replaced the GST/HST credit — lands October 5. The Ontario Trillium Benefit and the Advanced Canada Workers Benefit both land October 9. Old Age Security follows its own schedule: the October OAS amounts were published on September 29, ahead of the October 28 payment.

If your total benefit for the year is under $240: you will not get monthly payments at all. The CRA pays it as a single lump sum with the July payment. If you are waiting for a small monthly deposit that never comes, this is usually why.

If a payment does not arrive: the CRA asks you to wait five business days after the expected date before contacting them. Calling on day one accomplishes nothing.

The thing that quietly stops your payments

This is the part worth reading twice. The CRA’s own wording is blunt: once you have applied for the CCB, you must file your tax return every year to keep receiving it, and if you have a spouse or common-law partner, they must file on time every year too. Your payments will stop if you don’t do your taxes. File late, and the payments may stop temporarily until the return is assessed.

The mechanism is simple. The CRA cannot calculate a benefit without an income figure, so it stops paying rather than guess. One unfiled return in a two-person household is enough to halt the money for both.

Four other changes you are required to report, each of which can stop or distort your payments: a change of address, a change in marital status, a change in who the child lives with, and a change of bank account. The CRA warns that a new direct deposit account can take up to a month to take effect.

And if a recalculation shows you were overpaid, the CRA can keep all or part of your future CCB payments and your income tax refunds until the balance is cleared. That is not a penalty, it is recovery, and it is why reporting a separation or a custody change promptly is cheaper than reporting it late.

If your child qualifies for the disability tax credit

The child disability benefit is paid with the CCB, in the same deposit, for each child approved for the disability tax credit. For July 2026 to June 2027 it is worth up to $3,480 a year, or $290 a month, per eligible child. It begins to be reduced once adjusted family net income passes $82,847.

What to do this week

Open CRA My Account and read your benefit notice. It shows the amount the CRA calculated for you, the income figure it used, and the months it covers. Everything else is a guess.

File any outstanding return now, including your spouse’s. If payments have stopped and you cannot work out why, this is the first thing to check. Filing late is fixable. Not filing is not.

Report a marital status, address or custody change before the next payment run. The October 20 deposit is calculated from what the CRA knows about you today.

Do not pay anyone to apply for this, or for anything else on this site. Applying for the CCB is free. Filing a class action claim is free. Any service charging a percentage of a benefit or a settlement payment is taking money you would have received anyway — we saw exactly that behaviour around the Government of Canada account breach settlement.

Delete the text message. Benefit changes are followed by phishing, every time. The CRA has said plainly that it will never email or text you a link to your refund, will never demand immediate payment by e-transfer, cryptocurrency, prepaid cards or gift cards, and will never threaten you with arrest or deportation. If a message about your child benefit contains a link, it is not from the CRA. Go to canada.ca or your My Account directly, by typing the address yourself.

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More open settlements

• Three settlement deadlines close in October — and one “open” claim shut in March
• The $7.5M Silk and Great Value recall settlement: who can claim before October 16
• Two CAF class actions, one already closed — the racism claim deadline is October 15
• The Government of Canada account breach settlement, and why most claims are worth $80

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Amounts, thresholds and payment dates are as published by the Canada Revenue Agency for the July 2026 to June 2027 benefit year, current as of September 13, 2026. Maximum amounts are ceilings; your own entitlement depends on your 2025 adjusted family net income and the number and ages of your children. This article is general information, not legal, financial or tax advice. Confirm your own amount and payment dates in CRA My Account or on canada.ca.