AIBU to think that people earning £960 per week don't really need Child Benefit?

[OldGreyWiffleTest]

Well, am I?

If you meant what I was saying Hecubasdaughter...I just meant that in terms of wealth and lifestyle there is a big difference between £50,000 sole income and £80,000 joint income and that difference should be recognised somehow?

iheartttc if they are doing it on sole earner I presume it will be simple to administer via p60's. Household income is much harder as you have to match the 2 people up, many of whom like dp and I aren't married, which would make it harder

To do it on household income it would need a system like tax credits with annual renewals and forms galore and we all know how well that works

DP is currentley the only earner in the household and is a hrt.... however because of the job he does we live in one of the most expensive areas in the country for property, so our outgoings are nearly 70% mortgage. We live in a very "ordinary" 3 bed house (which we cant quite afford to do up).

I do not pretend that we are badly off, but we are by no means rich - and DP does pay an awful lot of income tax.

Our CB gets spent on our kids - it is the only money we can afford to spend on things other than the essentials at the moment, so yes, it will be missed. And by not giving it to us it will not be put back into the economy - you know, the economy that is on it's knees and so badly needs consumer spending to increase?

I have raised a child, received whatever 1 child benefit was. I am now 52, my son is grown and left home. I was made redundant on 16/12/11. I get , as of April, 71 pounds per week. I am lucky I have a Mum to help me. I don't have any savings ( gone bringing up my son ). To me, if you have 50 thousand pounds per year to live on, you have a fortune. I can only dream of that much money.

iheart I was replying to peppery

BTW peppery you say you begrudge the support my DC get. What do you suggest I should have done? When I took the decision to have DC both DH and I were employed. I didn't know we would be in this position. No matter how carefully you plan having children you can't be 100% sure what will happen. There are never guarantees that the rug won't be pulled from under you.

I don't understand why people were saying that it'd be harder to administrate if it was on household income?

ihearttc, I don't get that either. If it's so hard to link 2 NI numbers, what's to stop the parent on e.g. £20k fraudulently claiming CHB rather than their £60k+ partner.

Why not just use the already collected info for tax credits to means test the CHB?

Oh, I just thought. People on £50k+ don't get tax credits.

Not everyone gets tax credits though Totempole. We don't qualify for any so have never claimed so they won't have info on probably most families who would be on the cusp of qualifying/non-qualifying for CB. Also how would they know what 2 NI numbers to link. Voters roll not always accurate and doesn't say if the adults living there are partners or lodgers. It would be very expensive to administrate and would far outweigh the savings made.

I saw on the news today they think only 10% of families currently receiving CB would lose it completely. Seems a lot of hassle for just 10% to me.

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Whether people earning £50k, £60k, couples earning £119k actually NEED CB is totally beside the point.

What matters is:

a) this always was and should remain a universal benefit
b) the blatant unfairness of the policy in terms of single v dual income households beggars belief

And the shambles of this policy, including the lack of basic grasp of mathematics or natural justice, gives me even less faith in everything else this shower of a Govt gets up to.

It's interesting that no-body has answered my post. Have you all got so much money that you feel you can ignore me? Or am I a worthless dole whaler that isn't worth a thought?

enthusiasmcurbed - I'm really sorry for your situation, I really am. But this Government is screwing people like you as well, through their nastiness and incompetence. As I said, the way they have handled the CB thing is symptomatic of them being totally unfit to run the country.

I fall somewhere between yourself and those affected by the CB cut BTW.

May be a stupid idea but wasn't there talk of making it a self-declaration? Surely the cheapest ay to administer it, and with savings made

enthusiasm, what, replies did you want?

So if two people aren't married but living at the same address, they could put in a claim and it would be difficult for them to prove it's fraudulent?

It seems to me that CHB isn't one of the first things that they should be tackling.

The issues that come up time and time again on these type of threads are the cost and availability of housing and childcare, and the cost of travel. The way some employers have taken advantage of the tax credit system to reduce their own costs and maximise on profits.

OP YANBU!

Enthusiasm we are jobless to, but I still recognise many families need child benefit as cost of living is scary and frankly 50k doesnt even go that far these days

Thank you Gaelic. It's worth noting that ' Call me Dave' was an acolyte of the old Tory party before he came to what ever. ( no idea of real life ). I am really pissed off. I have worked all my life, raised a child with minimal state help. I now find myself unemployed at 52 with no savings.

And before everyone with megabucks in their bank accounts bears down on me, I had money but it went on DS. I now live on 71 pounds a week, nowhere near enough to live on, so if you have 50,000 pounds a year to live on, give it to me and I will show you to have a quite brilliant life.

'how'

But for a young family in ther 20s, 50k is still not a huge sum, considering house prices now

Well we earn considerably less than that, and to me a household of £50k is a fortune. But as I said that is totally beside the point. The policy is not being justified on the basis of childcare costs or anything of the sort. It's pure laziness, plain and simple. That is why we should ALL be against it - otherwise who's next?

I think if you were in the North East, 50,000 pounds would be huge and before you say it, wages are already less here and rents are rising. And jobs are far and few between.

enthusiasmcurbed - surely you aren't suggesting that the amount of CB you get should depend on where you live?

It does depend on where you live