Changes to child benefit -implementation

The precedent is already set with the declaration for Tax Credits which is based on the gross income for the household. That doesn't seem to have knocked independent taxation for six. My feeling is that they will administer Tax Credits and CB separately for a year or two, take the cost on the chin, and then the whole thing will be swallowed up in the Universal Credit together with HB and other benefits. One all-encompassing declaration rather than the current system should mean a huge reduction in admin long-term

I would like to know how the hell the government is going to justify removing a benefit paid to one partner based on the income of the other. The majority of people claiming CB are women. This policy is anti-women - even leaving aside the issue of HRP which I have NEVER seen addressed in any of the statements on this issue. I am now working so HRP is not an issue for me anymore. Having a benefit removed from me because of dh's earnings certainly is though!

It drives a coach and horses through the principle of independent taxation if one person has to declare what another person receives.

They really need to find a way to back out of this one with losing (even more) face. For the expected savings (from people relinquishing their claim) wilk be totally wiped out by the additional costs of clawback (from those who keep it to secure the NI credit) and in administering changes to those with a variable income.

Obviously a universal payment is cheaper to administer than one that is effectively means tested but, at the same time, if we're not paying upper earners £20/week, that's going to still mean a big saving.

I said 'mythical' because the example gets trotted out all the time and, rather like the families in the DM taking home large amounts of HB because they live in a Belgravia townhouse, they are not going to be in the majority.

If you want undesirable incentives, the tax system is full of them. A couple earning £40k each pay a total of £20,874 in tax and NI between them. A single person earning £80k pays £26,991. That's a much bigger discrepancy than £20/week CB.

Won't that make a cheap social welfare payment into an expensive administrative nightmare (like tax credits)?

I'm confused as to how something as obvious as two parents on roughly equal salaries either just above or just below the threshold can be dismissed as "mythical".

It's going to create some undesirable incentives.

I don't think the mechanics have been made clear yet. However, Tax Credits are claimed by having us declare our total household income and other information once a year and I could see a similar form going out to all CB recipients asking them to make a similar income declaration for themselves and any cohabiting partners/spouses. There may be some extra rules included if there is a review but, if they want it to be fairer, they will exclude all those mythical '2 earners on £40k each' rather than engineer it so that more people on middle/high incomes get to keep the payment.

They've said they are going to look at it again because as proposed it is very unfair.