Make Child Benefit a Means Tested Benefit.

[Whatabonkersworld]

So, the Winter Fuel Payment has been made means tested. According to the government older people have no need for any help to pay their winter fuel bill.
In a dose of reality here's another massive cost saving exercise. The annual bill for Child Benefit is something over £12bn. I suggest Child Benefit also become means tested and only parents who receive tax credits are eligible. Those unemployed would receive a stipend added to their universal credit, but would not be eligible for Child Benefit. This would become a strictly working persons benefit. This would save the country a huge amount of money and will hopefully pay for the inevitable pay increase recommendations for the rail workers and consultants which will shortly be coming round for negotiations.
How how does everyone like them Bananas!

Similar here, those are the only benefits we receive. I've worked and paid tax since I was 16, now in my late thirties. Was full time before kids, now work 3 days a week. Our childcare bill for one child (2yo) for 3 days is nearly £1000 a month. If we didn't have the child benefit and 20% tax free childcare it simply wouldn't pay for me to work at all. Under the old system at one point we lost child benefit due to my husband literally just going over the threshold and we really noticed the difference every month not having child benefit.

Because the money for winter fuel goes to the big energy companies' pockets and no one else.

The money for child benefit goes directly into the economy in thousands of different ways and supports everything from bus services to small food businesses.

So in effect one is like throwing money in the bin, and one is like recycling it.

The only way to solve that is for people to fund their own retirement and do away with the state pension in future.

I am a SAHP and although we cannot claim child benefit due to my husbands salary I still register my children with child benefit but do not claim. This means I get my national insurance credit each month until my youngest child is 12. You don’t have to actually claim the child benefit money to get the credit

The only way to solve that is for people to fund their own retirement and do away with the state pension in future.

What and then just phase ourselves out, year on year? The economy isn't only about pensions.

I am a pensioner and I am quite happy with the winter fuel benefit being targeted I don't need it. My outgoings are much smaller than my children's.
The child benefit is already targeted although I would be quite happy for it to be universal again
Families with young children need the money more than I do. And I think we all have a responsibility to support the next generation whether we have children or not

Yay!!

We have a Labour government!
And they are taking measures fit for a Conservative government. What a relief!
Shall we make it even better by doing more of that? Removing help to the most vulnerable in society just like we’ve done in the last 14 years.

Because we can see how good and efficient this has been the country.
Looks at the soaring number of food banks, children poverty, ill health and disability (both driven by poverty). Clearly the best way to make the country better.

Im so so relieved. NOT.

@DrRiverSong Apologies if someone else has already said this, but the threshold was raised to £80k a few months ago. We were a family who lost the benefit completely under the old system and thankfully now claim it again as my husband was literally just over the old threshold (by £50 🤦🏻‍♀️).

As for the winter allowance, the issue isn’t that those who dont need it (but had no issue claiming it 🤔🤔) won’t get it.
Its the fact many pensioners who do need it but dont get the pension tax credit won’t.

Well that's great if you don't need it, but a lot of pensioners who now won't get it because they are just slightly over the threshold to qualify for it do need it!

Most of those posters had wealthy parents. The MN demographic is not representative. Just look at all those threads claiming £100k plus is not a good wage, or people on £70k claiming they take home the same as people on NMW plus benefits (they take home way more).
Lots of people are just above pension credit amount. Pension credit tops up income to £218.15 for single people and £332.95 for couples. It is not a large amount.

@LiterallyOnFire the birth rate has fallen from 1.94 in 2010 to 1.48 in 2023.

The lowest it’s ever been and probably still falling.

Less people having children, and those who do have them having less of them.

I would agree with means testing of child benefit but only with the proviso that all savings were redirected to early years support and education.

I think this is why they pushed through the school fees VAT thing. Which has made some people furious, but not Labour's target market.

The deficit is so huge they can't afford to act like a Labour government. They have known that for a while so they're going for easy wins.

They've gone a bit overboard on the cut off for WFA, but there isn't another better but still low-ish threshold that's easily documented. Maybe income tax threshold but that could get complicated.

I have a child and don’t receive child benefit because it is already means tested.

Funding your own pension is very expensive.
Remember though lots of older people like me who did save into private pensions got zero employer contributions. Employers did not have to pay anything.
Private pensions were sold to people like me as a way to top up your state pension. If I was young now I would not pay into a pension. I think pensions will become means tested and a lot of lower paid people will have been better off saving nothing.

I knew it was falling worryingly. I didn't realise we'd already broken the 1.5 barrier.

I agree @AvrielFinch

DH and I both worked full time. We were slightly above the threshold for tax credits (or whatever they were called back then). No free child care so I had to do evenings and weekends while DH worked mon-fri.
The child benefit payments were difference between my kids being clothed and fed properly or not

You are really advocating people literally starve. Even before the welfare state parishes paid small pensions and there were workhouses to feed people.

Hence two child cap, surely? Birth rate has now slipped to below replacement level. We don’t have a shortage due to immigration.

Child benefit is means tested on earnings

those earnings were raised by Tory gov before election

working benefits pay up to approximately £40k

so it’d not have the affect you think it would

I agree the way it is means tested needs addressing, its silly that one person earns 60k (not sure if that is the amount) and one person be a SAHP and not be entitled, but two people can earn 59k each and still be eligible, it doesn't make sense.

Its the same as the winter fuel allowance, some pensioners who are incredibly wealthy get it, which is unfair. what should happen is that those who need more, get more, and those who don't, don't get anything, for both CB and WFA.

The issue comes from the cost of means testing them, its likely it hasn't been done before, because trying to administrate it is a huge and expensive task.

The population will peak in the next 15 years and is not growing at the same rate it has been in the previous 18 years.

as the older population dries the population ages should be more stable

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2021basedinterim

birth rate was 2.4 in the 1970s and is now 1.4

The issue comes from the cost of means testing them, its likely it hasn't been done before, because trying to administrate it is a huge and expensive task.

its cheap to administer with means tested benefits as the authorities know who they are - it becomes simple and cheap