To wonder if everyone uses Child Benefit/Tax Credits on their children?

[Voidka]

I have been browsing on another forum (in a section I dont normally look at) and there seems to be the thought on there that CB must be used on things that the child needs and wants, not to cover bills and household expenses.

Now I am sure this is lovely in an ideal world, but it doesnt work in practice surely?

It goes into the pot which pays for things that the children need and benefit from ie housing, food, clothing etc etc. No need to separate it out IMO!

It goes into general family expenses.

My children needs a warm house to live in. They need food on the table. I can't see the issue with spending CB on these things.

The title is a bit rubbish - sorry.

It pays for food and heating etc, so it is spent on all of us.

It just gets lumped in with the rest of the household money. I couldn't possibly know what that exact few pounds is spent on.

The fact of the matter is that having that extra few pounds makes childrearing less painful, financially, so it's doing its job.

It just goes into the joint account and gets spent (or saved) , like really tired says.

Well I'm sure if I bothered to account it that way I could "show" that it was spent on the children - their food, their activities, clothes, school stuff etc. It must be quite hard (for older children) not to spend the child benefit amount on your children.

But in reality it goes into the household accounts and gets lost in the general expenses.

I think that's impractical. Dcs need electricity, gas etc and also pots, beds, a place to sit. Just because it's not direct does not mean it is not for their benefit.

In our house it all goes in one pot and we usually spend more on them than we receive anyway.

What about food aswell? Where does that fit in? I thought the point of it was to try to make sure every child has a certain standard of living. Surely that includes the basics?

I think they are being a bit idealistic tbh.

my CB goes into the same account as everything else and it is this account that (just about) pays for our rent, food, heating, electric, gas, clothing, petrol and all other miscellaneous costs involved in raising children. there is nothing left over at the end of any month (infact i've been living in my overdraft for the past year) so yes that money definitely gets spent on my dcs.

Same as everyone else here - it all goes into the pot. I am assuming if you qualify for CTC then you need to use the money to live on.

It goes into the pot, but as I hardly spend anything on luxuries for myself and am v skint since having ds, then in a roundabout kind of way it does get spent on him.

Same for most families I would imagine.

None of my income is differentiated to any of the other, so it basically goes into the main account and is used to deal with all financial matters. However I have started putting maintenance into separate accounts for my children, just so I have specific money for their school, trips, activities, and other similar expenses.

We use ours to pay towards childcare. It goes in the general pot but I can only claim £243 max per month in voucher and childcare is approx £370 so it covers the shortfall.

I'm looking forward to the days where we can save the money in the kids accounts..... As if that will ever happen the way things are just now!

It's money that goes in the family pot. Although clearly not for much longer.

I spend it on wine.

(not really but it would be nice)

Mine goes into a separate account and I do try to spend it on things for the girls like clothes and their ballet classes but it doesn't always work out and sometimes it gets spent on food shopping if I am running short.

I would love to be able to spend it all on them but it just doesn't always happen like that.

Well at least I found a forum that is more viperish than MN :o

When I lived in the UK CB got spent directly on the kids, eg. school shoes, termly bills for activities and I used to save Oct-Dec for Christmas presents. It was wonderful. "The family pot" is just another way of dealing with family finances so it just depends on what works for you. Now we're in Australia everything is means tested so we don't get a cent which is fair enough, it was nice having that money that was specifically for the kids though.

It was never meant to be spent on children's treats or to be saved for them.
I have no problem with people doing that if they can afford it though.

It was Mother's Allowance. It was paid to the mother because there were problems with men pissing their wages away. Women didnt have any direct access to money so if they were married to a bastard they and the kids went without.
They money was for buying food and milk etc. Basics.

It would be lovely to put the money away in an account for the kids. But its not going to happen so we put it in the bank and it goes towards paying off the mortgage and buying food etc.

I once got told off because I didnt put my DS's DLA in an account for him and that I shouldnt be spending it

Years ago CB was called 'Family Allowance' and that made more sense really considering it goes into the pot to feed/clothe/house the family.

Mine goes into the joint account which is our spending money, does go on clubs for kids, clothes but also on food, days out, household goods. Makes a big difference but we won't be get it for much longer.

It goes towards general household expenses which benefit my ds anyway. He likes a warm house with electric lighting. Some goes toward the cost of his nursery/activities I suppose but we don't separate it out from other money.

I remember reading someone saying that they put their child benefit aside every week(month?) for the child to get when they were 18. Lovely if you can afford to do that but it doesn't really seem like what it's for. If you can afford to do that maybe you shouldn't really be claiming it?

Was it netmums?

They love a good martyish thread on there. Lots of gasps and discust (sic) that people dont section of the money for the lickle bubbas and to do anything else is stealing. stealing from your own children! [please insert several crying emoticons here to show just how discusting it all is]

All money goes into the same account, whether it's for me or DD and then gets used for things we need.
I don't differentiate.