Any one know about child benefit?

[MrsNandortheRelentless]

I’ll give the number a call tomorrow but want to understand a bit more from someone who can explain it to me.

I got myself the best job I’ve ever had. It pays well, for the first time in my working life, I’m not having to worry about paying bills & feeding us.

Im over the threshold (£50k)
so as soon as I found out I stopped child benefit (one child).
I had been in my job for about 9 months, had not earned £50k by that time.

I’ve just been working it out and it looks like I will owe about £900.

My question is, as I had not earned £50k at the point that I stopped the benefit, do I owe this much?
Would it be ok to pay back monthly rather than all in one go?

I am suggesting to our HR that they definitely mention that this is a thing to all new employees as I had no idea and only found out by accident from a friend.
I think that HR should tell people because I had a panic about it and would never had carried on this benefit had I known. I am actually mortified.

Thanks for any info and advice.

You only need to pay it all back when you earn over £60k and on a sliding scale between £59k and £60k. It's better to claim and then pay it back and you can only backdate 3 months if your circumstances change. It is based on the tax year Apr-Apr. Wait till the end of the tax year in which you first earn over £50k. Get your P60. Register for self assessment and fill in your tax return including income, taxable benefits, pension contributions, gift aid etc and the amount you received in child benefit. Ask to pay back any tax owed through your tax code. HMRC will adjust your tax code and you will pay anything you owe through PAYE.

It runs from tax year to tax year so April to April. Will you have earned over £50k in the previous tax year? Also you only pay the full amount back if you earn £60+ and between £50 and £60k you pay a proportion back (1% for every £100 over £50k).

You can also make additional pension payments to bring your adjusted net income under £50k and avoid any payback

And why are you mortified? You are perfectly entitled to keep the claim and pay any back if necessary

Why did you stop it? What an unnecessary hassle. Just carry on claiming and then fill in self assessment tax return to work out what you need to repay HMRC. This is how most people (should) do it.

There's no need for embarrassment, it's a totally normal position for anyone who starts to earn over the limit

Just ring up and ask what will happen

I don't think an HR department should be responsible for letting employees know about all the possible benefit implications of how much they earn

You should still be getting at least some.

Presumably you are paying something into a pension and it's your income after pension deduction that counts, and you still get something until that reaches £60k

Also it's not just your salary being over £50m because some things you get at work are exempt of this £50l threshold - I check my P60 for details

Look at your income once pension has been deducted- that may take you under the £50k figure at which you start paying some back

Yes - this. My gross salary is a bit under £52k but after deducting pension contributions it is about £49k for CHB purposes

You could: register for self assesment as a higher tax payer. You keep the CB, pay more into your pension, then you only need to pay back a tiny amount.

It is done on tax years, you probably shouldn’t have cancelled it yet. As others have said, it is based on salary plus bonus less pension contributions roughly. If that is between £50-60k, you can continue to receive CB then do your tax return and pay an additional tax on it effectively.

I had 2 big payrises in 22/23 which took me from net below the threshold to net above it. I cancelled the child benefit in March this year (when it was clear I was going to exceed in total) and put my info in over the summer. I will start paying back the full amount from 22/23 (£145 per month for me) as an extra tax deduction for the 24/25 tax year starting in April.