AIBU to claim child benefit?

[tooposhtopost]

This morning, I heard a minister being interviewed (didn't catch who) saying that he hoped that 40% tax payers would "do the right thing" and stop claiming child benefit.

The top earners already pay 50% tax, get no tax relief on our pension contributions and often do not overburden the state (eg private education for the DC, private healthcare).

I have always claimed CB - well, it arrives by direct debit. I have seen it as a tiny weeny small rebate of tax in recognition of the fact that we have the extra cost of having children who will be the ones supporting all of us when we get old. So should I be disclaiming it?

Who else would like to know if any government ministers (or their wives) claim CB or whether they are leading by example and eschewing it?

actually now i add it up it costs my DH about 3k in fuel, not to mention maintaining the car, for him to travel to work too. its not what we use cb for but it is about the same amount

InGodWeTrust - absolutely spot on.

MamoTTaT - there are lots of things I haven't done, as I suspect there would be for you. Does not mean that I cannot imagine, contrast and compare. Can you compore? Have you been a CEO and a care assistant?
Actually just to clarify I have been neither a CEO OR a care assistant!
The one thing I can state from personal experience is that the more I earned the harder I worked and the more stressed out I was.
Mrsdevere - Yes that may be an option for some people on high incomes you are right. Someone earlier on pointed out that people tend to live on the edge of their means whatever their means maybe. If you think you'd be able to buck that trend then good on you. Most people can't. The jobs you mention are very stressful, of course they are but they are stressful in a different way.

Showing signs of severe old age, child benefit was introduced as a cash benefit to replace the tax allowance iirc.

This was done to provide a cash benefit to mothers rather than increasing the net pay of fathers who might or might not have handed it over according to their personal inclination.

"Our CB is £242 for 4 children" - now I understand why some couples have a football team for a family. It pays to breed.

is this a joke thread? i have only read the first page, can't be bothered wasting an hour reading the rest if it is all people complaining about losing the luxury of their music lessons.

Don't need the money, nice to have of course but yeah let someone else have it...There is absolutely no other moral position for anyone on £44K pa.
(I can't be ar*ed reading rest of thread either)

I think a lot of us are missing the point. Although the proposal isn't entirely fair, it will be cheap to administer, and lets face it, the current system is even less fair. At the moment, a billionaire could still claim child benefit!

We don't need to claim CB but we do and put it all away for the kids.
Part of me claims it for the selfish reason that we pay enough tax and I'd like some of it back thanks, and the other part claims it because we've been on the poverty line where CB was the only thing standing between us and our next meal and we're putting away everything we can at the moment should it ever happen again to us or our kids. It's happened twice so far. I'm not discounting it happening again just because we're considered "high income" now.

Not too much to say on this apart from - I will lose out.

But I really want my children to have a chance in this country. We are not about to move to Australia or Canada as my Hubs is too old. So it doesn't bother me if we are giving to future generations.

The way I am looking at this is should everyone have a new kitchen when they feel like it or a new car.

What happened to make do and mend.

I think this has been lost terribly.

I'm confused by those saying 'I pay a lot in tax, so expect some back.' Rather than giving £10 to the gorvernment and then getting upset about not getting £2 back, wouldn't it make more sense to get upset that you're being charged £10 instead of £8 in the first place? Handing money directly back and forth between people and government seems an absurd thing to endorse.

Also, it does seem ridiculous that individual incomes will be assessed but household incomes won't be. I hope all the people who mentioned that will actually campaign at their MP about it.

We will probably lose CB unless we increase our pension contributions (which we may choose to do). I am not much bothered either way.

I tend to think that it shouldn't go as a universal "benefit", because there are precious few concessions in the UK tax system for families/those with dependents/children. If tax rebates should exist for anything, they should exist for families with children and other dependents.

Hey I've been a company director AND a care assistant, yes, really. Not both at the same time. Happy to take questions

What about the people in business who will always find a loophole, like making the wages officially below the limit and still claim. I know a family who live in a beautiful house on a fantastic road and area, run a business, yet their child claimed EMA. My own sister could not claim because her DH and her earned to much! She has a low paid job for the council and he works on an assembly line. It's just not fair.

Re the OP, I think the minister meant from 2013, when there are 2 ways to do it if there is at least one higher rate tax payer in the household:

1. Claim CB anyway and pay it back through PAYE by voluntarily declaring it and asking to have your tax code changed

2. Stop claiming it

Obviously these are the 2 honest ways to do it. It will be entirely possible for (generalising) the wife to carry on claiming CB and the husband never to inform the tax authorities that his code needs changing... so what are they going to do? Spend as much as they save with a whole new enforcement department set up to cross reference child benefit payments with P60s? Or will it just be like 40% tax payers who don't declare the interest they earn on bank accounts? Most of whom probably don't realise they are supposed to declare it......

Anyways, I don't think they meant that people should stop claiming CB right now.... that would be like saying people should write to the tax man and say please may I pay some extra tax this year that I don't have to, just to help the country out.

The majority of small business owners keep their own salaries low so that their business can to afford the salaries in lean times as well as good times, plus they might want to plough the profits into growing the business rather than taking it as a wage. Arranging your salary around child benefit thresholds will not be on the radar of most small businesses. Trust me, it's the least of their worries at the moment.

Hi, I'll add my little two pence worth lol!

I am a sahm, my dp earns over the threshold for the new cb allowance so as of 2013 I won't get it. There's the point. He has never received the benefit, it's mine the only bit of wonga I get that isn't down to him and I'm bloody pissed off!!

Plus each parent could earn 43k and still claim!! If they're going to implement this then at least do it properly so even high income families don't get it on a bloody technicality! There's the Tories for ya!!!

Honestly I do not understand why some posters are getting so exercised about the £18/month that I use to sponsor Felix. Do you honestly believe that only people who are not in receipt of any state subsidies should engage in charitable donation? That is blatant tosh because some of the most generous people I know are also the poorest, who proportionately give far more both in terms of time and resources to help others- be in volunteering or sharing meagre means with people even less fortunate.

Since only about 10% of the population earns more than £50,000, that would be bit of a bummer if Mrs Smith could no longer give a bit of her pension, if any family could no longer give some of its income because Shock Horror! they dared to claim CB, if neighbours could not help neighbours because they were in receipt of housing benefit or a subsidised house. Imagine a world where everyone said "No sorry, can't help you because I get money from the government. Luckily real life is infinitely more rich and varied than the neat little schemas in some people's heads.

And while we're on the subject of income, I do think that it's too easy to discount the extra help that people get. Before quoting your income as being "terribly" low, you need to factor in Housing benefit which although you may not see it, still exists as a form of income- it's money you don't have to pay out of your earned income- and any work assistance benefits (WFC, CTC etc), and add all your forms of income together before feeling sorry that you do not earn xxx more.

As a family, we are not in receipt of very much in the way of state assistance. Just CB and a very small amount of CTC.

The £18/month that Felix receives has enabled him to get an education and a future. As far as I'm aware there is not a single child in the UK who does not have access to an education.

pommedeterre. I am a community carer working on min wage, my partner is a printer who works for little over min wage and I RESENT your implication that the higher the earnings the harder you work.. I work bloody hard thank you very much as does my partner......

I too came from a higher earnings job that I had to give up when the children arived as I wanted to be there for them. I have to work however to support my partners salary as it doesn't cover our bills.

We dont have holidays, expensive treats and dont sponcer anyone else.. WE do however by clarks shoes but to do so something else has to go... Our child benifit goes on keepin a roof over out childrens heads and keeping their tummies full..

that should be

keeping a roof over our childrens heads

sorry

posting so I can login

Sorry, but FFS! Can't believe the amount of moaning on here from people who earn 40K plus. My heart fucking bleeds!

Ok Gmajor 40K is quite alot of money. But with the amount of tax and ni you have to pay its not as much as you think. Partic if you are a single parent having to fork out for childcare.

I disagree with the notion that cb is just for luxaries in those cases. I am a SAHP of a HRT payer. The money is not used for music lessons or ski trips or at Costa Coffee. It is used to balance our accounts at the end of the month.

How can it be fair too if one family can still claim it on 80k but one on 45k loses it.

So much for getting people on benefits back to work. They are going to be competing with SAHP for work.

I also get frustrated by the notion that taxpayers fail to see why they should subs SAHP of higher rate taxpayers. Actually no, most SAHP have already put their fair share in the pot as have their HRT paying partners.