By Paul Lewis BBC Radio 4's Money Box

The BBC has learned that two million mothers have still not claimed the new Child Tax Credit just a month before it is due to start.

A new campaign was launched this week to encourage mothers to claim the money, which is �545 a year or more.

Any mother can claim, as long as her family income is �50,000 a year or less.

People on lower incomes may get more, up to another �28 a week for each child, and up to �140 a week for childcare.

And even those with incomes above �50,000 may get something.

The absolute upper limit to get the minimum �26 a year is nearly �58,000 a year.

Main carer

The Government says that means nine out 10 families can get Child Tax Credit which - despite its name - is nothing to do with tax at all.

It is a benefit paid directly to the main carer, which is defined as the person who claims Child Benefit, usually the mother.

However, figures given to Money Box show that two million mothers have not yet claimed.

Altogether seven million families get child benefit and the Government says nine out of 10, or 6.3m, can claim child tax credit as well.

About 1.3m of those will get it automatically paid with a social security benefit such as income support or jobseeker's allowance.

That leaves five million who will have to clam it, and talking to the BBC's Money Box programme, Treasury Minister Dawn Primarolo said that "about three million" had claimed by the end of February.

Leaving two million still to get their claim in.

Campaign

She was speaking at the launch of the new campaign called Money2Mummy, which stresses that the credit goes direct to mothers.

"It is going to be paid directly to mothers, they will get a cash amount directly to them for a year, unless their circumstances change dramatically.

"The old system worked so that if you were in work you had to apply for one set of benefits, and if you were out of work you had to apply for another, and there were loads of people who fell through the middle, didn't get anything, student nurses for example, or students.

"They will now be in the system, and they could find they get �38 a week more."

And she said there were many ways to claim.

"People can register online, they can telephone us, they can go to the Inland Revenue office. I want as many people to claim as possible."

BBC Radio 4's Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 8 March 2003 at 1204 GMT