Should child benefit change, and how?

[MidnightPatrol]

Martin Lewis talking about the unfairness of how child benefit is applied today. Millions more are being caught up by its removal.

Key points:

• A single income household with a £60k income is eligible for £0, while a dual income household earning up to £100k gets 100%.
• The earnings threshold has not changed since 2013

Should this change, and if it does change what would be 'fair' instead?

e.g.

• Should the arbitrary cut-off be higher?
• Should it be universal?
• Should it be based on household rather than single income?

To make CB universal would cost about 4 billion. It wouldn't cost anything like that to administer the current system.

Could you share your source? I couldn't find one.

My husband controls all money coming into the house and if he’s in a mood I get none. The one thing I could rely on was my child benefit as it went to my account (my wages go into his account) I no longer get this money due to DH earning over £60k this is where the system falls down it was my safety net. I earn £12k a year so I have to take money as I get it some goes into savings to leave but it’s less now as I’m topping up what the CB gave me.

It was from a chap on ch4 news . The clip might be on SM . I'll see if I can find it

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1748791798242156993?t=vPv0qKbyQwgSSanHbmNk2g&s=19

Haha!

How far do you think 60k gets you with 1 or 2 children in full time childcare, a mortgage, bills, and all the rest of it?

I'm the parent of a disabled child who get DLA and I get carers allowance so my stamp is paid .

Thanks! That interview was interesting, I didnt know about it til now. He obviously wouldn't have had time to show his working, I'll have a look and see if the IFS have anything more detailed. Would've been good also to see him be able to get into wider considerations like the potential impact of parents taking action to stay under the threshold but I suppose a two minute segment isn't enough.

Also hadnt realised Jeremy Hunt was so explicitly mooting the idea. I am actually a bit surprised the Tories are only talking about doing this now. I know their primary support base is pensioners and that's not going to change, but this income bracket of working age people is exactly the cohort they'd have prioritised not so long ago. It's also a way to try and help younger voters without being any kind of hot button, culture wars type risk- their pensioner base aren't particularly anti CB in a way that they might be with other policies like more flexible working or anything that could interfere with house prices.

@katystar go to your employer and say you need to change your bank account details for your wages. Get them in your own account.

@x2boys it's the "invisible" carers who lose out though unfortunately.
So many parents have had to give up work to homeschool because the system has let their children down.
No "official" diagnosis so they won't get DLA or Carers.

I can definitely see the argument for household income being used to calculate the amount received. But households with two working parents will likely have higher childcare costs than households with a stay at home parent. This means some will be worse off if it was to change to household income. Maybe single parent households should have a higher threshold as they’d only have one income and high childcare cost?

With respect tis isn't the fault of child benefit
Your Dh is being controlling. And financially abusive

Yes I am aware but that £130 made a huge difference and probably does for thousands of other women.

Yes, the previous system provided some level of safeguard to some women which has now been removed. The absence of that safeguard now is a consequence of the decision to change the system.

Yes - this. As a lone parent I have felt discriminated against by this policy. The only reason why there has not been more publicity about this aspect of this policy is because lone parents who are affected by this are a silent minority.

And primarily women, of course. Which never helps.

@TellerTuesday

*It's been an absolutely nonsensical system since they brought in the high earner charge.

I cannot even believe that they ever let a system be put in place where a couple could earn £49999 each and be entitled to it and not one single person over £60k it's ridiculous.*

So this is nonsensical but do you also think kts nonsensical that a single adult household only pays 75% council tax instead of 50%? There are lots of way single people are disadvantaged financially but when these issues are raised guess who poo poo it, yes the 2 adult householders dont see then wanting a fairer system cos it would be a detriment to them either through additional taxes or god forivd a version of the poll tax where every adult in the house pays council tax.