No, the government isn’t giving £1,000 grants to new parents from January 2026

Videos viewed thousands of times on social media claim the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that from January 2026 parents of newborn babies will receive a £1,000 grant within 60 days of the birth.

But this isn’t true. The government has not announced any such policy, and the videos being shared include audio resembling Mr Starmer’s voice that was likely made using artificial intelligence (AI).

Full Fact found several variations of this claim being shared in videos on Facebook, as well as TikTok. One says the “initiative” is a “£1,000 gift from the government” called the “New Life Grant” and that it is “the UK’s response to the challenges posed by the country’s declining birth rates”. Another says the “scheme aims to give young families some extra support”, while a third says the “initiative might be just the beginning of more to come”.

One video features a clip of Mr Starmer that was taken from a statement he made in Downing Street in September 2025 on recognising a Palestinian state, and made no mention of government grants for new parents in the UK.

The audio in the viral clips also doesn’t consistently match the natural cadence or intonations of Mr Starmer’s voice and was likely created with AI. The audio in one of these clips pronounces the word ‘asterisk’ instead of noting it as punctuation, saying “asterisk New Life Grant asterisk”, a mistake unlikely to be made by an impersonator, indicating the punctuation was put into a text-to-speech generator.

We found no evidence on gov.uk that such a policy exists, and we could also find no credible news reports about it.

Similarly, searches of Hansard, the record of what is said in Parliament, doesn’t show any evidence of such an announcement, which you would expect with such a major policy.

Child benefit

Although new parents are not being given a £1,000 gift for newborn children from next year, they can already receive money for looking after a child under existing legislation. People can claim child benefit if they are responsible for bringing up a child who is under 16 (or under 20 if they stay in approved education or training). Child benefit can be claimed 48 hours after a parent registers a birth, or once a child comes to live with them.

The amount of money you can receive depends on your income. There are two child benefit rates, £26.05 a week for the eldest or only child, and £17.25 a week for additional children.

There have been initiatives in other countries such as Finland and China to pay parents in order to encourage more people to have children, but there is no evidence of any such plans in the UK.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen videos sharing misinformation about supposed new policies or rules that don’t exist. Other examples include claims that all drivers now have to pay £100 to enter London and that the government is introducing a £500 ‘exit fee’ to leave the UK.

It’s important to consider whether information you see on social media comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source before sharing it. Our toolkit provides some advice about how to do this.