Child benefit changes - what do you think?

[KateMumsnet]

Next week, the Inland Revenue will write to 1.2m families about upcoming changes to child benefit eligibility. The changes mean that from next January, single-income families earning more than £50,000 per year will no longer be eligible for the full amount (currently worth £1,055 for the first child) - and those earning over £60K will no longer receive it at all.

The changes are controversial. Dual-income families who both earn just below the 50K cut-off - who have, in other words, a family-income of just under £100K per year - will continue to receive the full amount, leading to criticism that the changes penalise both stay-at-home mothers and single parents. Accountants are warning that new partners of divorced parents could also lose out. And the entire process is so complicated - with families forced to fill out complex self-assessment forms for the first time - that the Inland Revenue has reportedly postponed sending out the letters because they can't find a form of words that families will be able to understand.

What do you think? Will you be affected by the changes, and what will it mean for your family? Are stay-at-home mothers being unfairly targeted - or is staying at home a luxury which shouldn't be subsidised by the taxpayer? Should child benefit be universal - or should it be available only to families who are really struggling? Let us know what you think here on the thread, and don't forget to post your URLs if you blog on this subject - we'll be tweeting them over the next few days.

I don't think anyone on this thread has moaned about poor me I'm warning 50K plus I desperately need CB.

I, for one, would happily give up every penny if it went to protecting disabled people's benefits, it's utterly disgusting what is happening to them in this country today.

We're all in this together? They just cut the highest rate of tax saving millionaires thousands how is that fair?

I know what you mean Frankee, it's made me mad too and I'm normally pretty chilled about most things. My DH is fed of me banging on about it. He reckons it's all I've talked about for 2 years. Bedmonster, not had a letter here either. I'm not doing anything. They can chase me if they like, but I won't be chasing them.

I'm just below this, so would lose mine if I decided to increase my hours from 0.8 wte to full time, or if I applied for a promotion. This makes me feel less inclined to do either of these for a while. DH is part time on a low income, so mine is the main salary.
In some ways I think it is hard to complain about losing a benefit like this when so many people are struggling to get jobs at all, and there are so many disabled people being threatened with loss of benefits. These are difficult times.
I'm not sure how much this will cost for administration though, and whether the savings will be enough to compensate for the costs.

I'm a single mum with 2 DC (age 4.5 and 2), receiving no financial support from DC's father and receiving no other benefits other than the universal CB. I live in the London area and on my current salary of just under £50k, its already a real struggle to pay mortgage, nursery fees (for youngest DC) and the rising cost of raising my family - I have been encouraged by my manager to apply for promotion this year with a modest salary increase, which would take me just above the £50k. In effect if I got the promotion this would be much worse off financially ...but professionally and personally this would be a good thing for me to do, and so having weighed it up decided to apply despite knowing that a lack of money is going to be a real problem for me. I cannot afford to work part-time and reduce my hours down to 0.8 wte, nor can I afford to reduce my youngest DC's days at nursery as no childcare means no work. Its just seems so unfair and immoral that I'm being penalised for being a single-mum when all I want is the opportunity to work hard and support my family.....this is yet another open attack by the government on single-mothers as far as I'm concerned and yet another way to penalise and punish single-mums for daring to go it alone. Us single mums are damned if we do (work) and damned if we dont. Surely the cost of administering would outweigh any savings made from the current universal CB system as many have also mentioned on this thread

I agree something needs to be done but no logic has been applied as usual.

Also while we are at it, the government should also really crack down on high earners living in council houses. Bob Crow earn £100K a year so can afford to rent privately or buy his own place. He should be made to give up his house for someone in more need.

This isn't extra tax, it is simple getting less benefits! There is a big difference. I don't see why my taxes should go towards someone earnings twice as much as I do, simple because they choose to have children! We live in London (zone 4). Me and my husband both work (one of us is close to the £50K treshold), have a mortgage and when my daughter was little had to go to nursery. At the end of the month, we were probably worse off than some families where the mother stays at home. I have to admit that I was very confused when my neighbour (a stay at home mum with three children) told me how upset she is because they loose CBs but having 3 children (planning 4th one) is a lifestyle choice hence rest of the society should not be paying for this.

Survivor12 - I don't believe you are being penalised for being a single mum as this affects anyone earning above £50K regardless of whether they are married or not.

We haven't had a letter either, but I didn't realise pension came into it. We're borderline for losing much of our cb and the pension contributions might tip it over. Not a straightforward start lose it if your gross income is over £50 k it seems. Nothing about it is straightforward it would appear.

we will stop recieving it,but we dont get any other benefits either like tax credits or anything so it wont honestly make a huge difference,but it is unfair,as my sil and her partner both earn around 40k a year and wont lose out.

DH earns over the threshold; I don't but I do earn something. I don't mind losing CB - with 3 kids it will reduce our budget by £4000 but frankly I know we're fortunate to be in our financial situation. I DO mind families on exactly the same income as ours keeping it: the cuts should affect everyone fairly.

Just filled in that fiscal studies survey thingy and we have a higher income than 93% of the population equivalent to 56.8 million individuals yet are unaffected by these changes.

I'm quite glad we are unaffected but can't help but feel that the system is flawed!

I think it is bizarrely, atrociously unfair.

You can argue about the pros and cons of parents working or staying at home all day long, but many people - single parents, carers (for partners, parents and children) and people with disabilities do not have the choice of being part of a dual income household.

The government would like to portray this as the rich mummy sacrificing her coffee so that the government doesn't have to cut disability benefits further than than they already have, but in many cases the families affected by child benefit cuts and DLA cuts will be one and the same.

I'm losing all of my cb. DH earns 65K, but we live in London and have a large mortgage and high commuting costs, so don't feel well off.

The answer in terms of coping with the loss of income is for me to get a job, but childcare is difficult because my youngest has ASD and I haven't been able to find anyone or anywhere which is suitable for him.

If anybody does decide to do anything about it I'm in.

It was going over my brain last night.

It is utterly unfair that People from other European countries will keep it,that wealthy families on 100k will keep it but that families like us on one income will lose it basically because of hard work.Yes. I know many people work hard but most people in the 50-60 k bracket will be middle managers who have toiled and sacrificed to get where they are.

My Dp took a year unpaid to get his Msc,he worked masses of weekends,long evenings to get into the above bracket which he is now being penalised for. My career went down the swaney long ago when I stayed at home to support him.If I'd have carried on working and we both had stayed around 30k each we'd be better off.Even when I go back we'll still be worse off and lose it.

Now if we were "all in it together" and losing it ie everybody was I'd find it easier to swallow.

So to the posters below or those on the other thread if you do find out anything that we can do. I'm in with bells on!!!

Oh and I don't know if people realise but company cars and private health cover are counted so if you do many miles and thus have a company car through no fault of your own it could tip you over.We don't but Dp had a private health thing which covered his eyes and glasses (IT),we've had to ditch that.I know several others looking at ditching their private health cover that came with their job which will thus put more pressure on the NHS.Ditto bonus and overtime-not going to do the hours to get the bonus or overtime as financially not any point.Interest in savings will tip you over too so if you're somebody who has saved and not got into debt you'll be penalised.

It's a ridiculously flawed and unfair system.

Can I just say a self assessment tax return is fairly straightforward if you are on PAYE and CB is the only benefit you get so don't let that put you off. You can do it on line and you might find you can claim stuff back such as professional fees, career development costs etc.

It is utter madness that some tax payers living with dc in UK won't get CB but foreign workers with dc living outside UK will. I don't know of any other EU country which has CB and all my friends from other countries living here were astonished to get this money when their dc were born. My preference would be to scrap CB altogether and tax everyone less. But governments esp Labour / lib dems like the population to be on some kind of dependency welfare to demonstrate their largesse. Wonder if Cleggy opposed the cap for CB on 2dc because he has 3ds?

Have a look at this:

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2257758/Im-giving-child-benefit-today-children---arent-saddled-debts-forever-says-Chancellor-George-Osborne.html

Not sure that last link worked. Try again:

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2257758/Im-giving-child-benefit-today-children---arent-saddled-debts-forever-says-Chancellor-George-Osborne.html

I hope George reads all the comments made at the bottom of his article

Have just started a thread in aibu re his hysterical piece in The Daily Fail-love that theme park pic,looks like he's really enjoying himself.

polkadot I always think he has a really uncomfortable looking smirk oh his face, almost as though it's painful for him to actually smile

mumzy

"don't know of any other EU country which has CB and all my friends from other countries living here were astonished to get this money when their dc were born."

If you don't know of any other EU country that has CB, then it's because you never looked.

research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/174summ.pdf

mumzy is right, filling in a tax return is dead easy and you can also claim back things you may never have claimed such as higher rate tax on charity contributions and some expenses. you might even find your claims back are more than the child benefit you pay back on the return.

Ah survivor, I have been using in various places the example of an unsupported single mother on £50k in London to prove she is not much better off than someone on benefits until she gets promotion and the children are at school (so worth taking the promotion and carrying on - well done you). So my sums were £50k salary, £14k tax paid and NI, £14k full time nursery place for one, £14k mortgage repayments on £150k loan. Add travel costs, work clothes, evening babysitting when you work late. That can work out as less than the idel benefits claimant single mother. Am I right?

Also by your logic those on lower than you have shouldn't complain as they're waaaaay better off than those in developing countries who get no support what so ever Forgive me if I'm wrong Polka but are you suggesting that those on benefits/extremely low income shouldn't complain because they're better off than those in countries without a welfare system? Have you any idea how hard it is to live on not much more than the minimum wage and bring up children ON YOUR OWN. I live in a very middle-class area where everyone has two cars/sends the kids to private school/goes on expensive holidays etc etc. It's hard having to constantly explain to DD that she can't have the things her friends have and that yet again we won't be able to afford a proper holiday and that we'll have to drive around in an old banger until it literally falls apart. But I just get on with it and hope DD grows up with a sense of what really matters in life.

I can see that people like you are unhappy because of course you're comparing yourself to others. Why not try and see that maybe families with two high earners are sacrificing rather a lot by both being at work (and presumably if they're both high earners they'll BOTH have had to work really hard, just like your DH has). And incidentally it's not just middle managers who work hard you know. Can you not appreciate how very fortunate you are, being able to stay at home to look after your children and not face the stress of working? Or maybe you don't like being at home? How I wish I could have done that, instead of dragging myself into a job I hated, day after day (I've always worked apart from a paltry 6 months maternity leave) and know that I'll have to work until I retire. Although luckily now I'm doing a job I love even though it's very badly paid. So why not try to compare yourself to the likes of me, or for that matter those in developing countries who get no support what so ever?

idel benefits claimant single mother I assume you mean idle Xenia. Gosh I can see you lot are really cross but there's no need to be so downright unkind.