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

[OldGreyWiffleTest]

Well, am I?

The point is, you have more disposable income and more choice. I'm not bashing higher earners ( DP was one before a factory was closed down due to recession and he lost a software contract) and we never felt like we were rolling in cash.

But you can't pretend CB is needed as much by HR tax payers to buy food as it is to people in minimum wage jobs. You are joking aren't you?

WorkingItOutAsIGo I should not be supporting those people on 50k a year because their husbands anne tight fisted

If you marry somone who is not fair and will make you feel like a begger everytime you need money then that's your affair quite frankly

The couple thing is unfair though and I believe it should be a universal benefit, absolutely.

lesley33 agreed this is not the 50s

minou I'm pretty sure that you pay into a pension payments from from pre-tax wages, tax is calulated after you have paid your contributions . So if you pay more into a pension you will pay tax on a smaller income. I'm sure someone else can explain it better.

We also don't have fancy holidays or kids in private schools. A lerge proportion of Dh's wage goes on housing and a £100 a week fuel bill to get to work!

Yes and if he refuses to buy the children new coats and gives you a few slaps from time to time you should go cap in hand to a charity rather than have a little bit of your own money to forge a way out of the situation.

@LittleAlbert...for people just above the magical HR threshold, when there's childcare expenses etc etc, your margins really are very tight.
I think this tapering should end with the people above the 60k level having this token NI payment so's pensions are protected. They don't see the cash, but it's put into the pot nonethel;ess.

Is everyone forgetting the cuts to women's services and the fact that charities like Refuge are struggling as it is?

I believe that I should not receive child benefit. We don't need it really, it's just something that goes into an account each month and every now and then I use it for a treat or to buy something for the kids. But honestly, we could manage without it.

When it came up in conversation with friends, who are well off, both couples have "family money" and were given their homes so have no mortgages, I was astounded at their responses to what I said. One said she didn't want to lose it because she used it to pay for her personal trainer and the other said she used it as spending money for shopping trips to London twice a year. Neither of them uses it for their children. Neither of them works. Ones husband is a millionaire.

Of course it is up to them to spend the money as they see fit. But I do think that a benefit is for people who NEED the benefit. Not just free money to get your nails done. And it isn't really free, if you pay a fortune in tax - like we do, you are contributing much much more than you get back, as is right.

Having said that, I dont know what the answer is, I know this cut off point seems unfair to some, who could really use the help. But I do think it's ridiculous that everybody gets it- regardless of income.

Thanks, going too fast.
As a measure of my idiocy, I have to be reminded by the lovely people at HMRC, every year, without fail....the difference between turnover and profit.

@McFluffy....I fear this is the way things are going. If you don't have the readies, you'll have to rely on the kindness of strangers.

You have to admit those are pretty extreme examples. I'm sure that's not the average situation of the part-time working mum and her £40k odd earning husband.

Yes sadly there are cuts to women's services so no things aren't perfect. But IMO it is not like the past when it was difficult for a woman to get a bank account in her own name if she was married and almnost impossible to get a mortgage without a guarantor and in many parts of the UK there were no services for women suffering DV including often no interest from the police. Financial injustice and discrimination against women was so rife that CB did play an important role in offering some limited protection to even well of women and children. Things have changed thankfully.

@Downnotout But you have just identified the real differentiator in society - not earned income which can be horrifyingly transient - but capital. Your friends have capital - 'family money'. They are mortgage free. They have assets. Damn right they shouldn't get CB. Same for people with lower incomes who are mortgage free with oodles in the bank due to inheritances. But people who have never inherited a penny, who have worked hard and are for now earning a nice salary (which could be taken away at a stroke), are in a completely different ballgame.

Oh, deffo, Lesley...but are they going backwards now?

Do you mean my examples mrfluffy?
I agree they are extreme, but that is my point. These are wealthy people bemoaning the unfairness of losing their child benefit, which just proves how ridiculous the blanket payment has become.

I do feel for those who will lose it who actually really use it for what it was intended for. But I got into a proper argument about it with my friends, who quite clearly did not need it.

I see what you are saying but having children still has a drastic financial impact, especially in the early years, usually on women but also on men too. People on this thread have said childcare costs total more than their earnings or they've had to go part time until their children start school. Those people probably couldnt get their own mortgage / survive without benefits if they were to get divorced.

It's a very vulnerable time financially and I can see how someone with an unsupportive partner could find him/herself in trouble. CB might be that little bit of secure, regular money which makes the difference.

And hopefully they'll be able to appeal.
I wonder if there'll be the facility to appeal and to make your case if you are going to be hard done by.

You do take a massive hit during the early years, you're right, McFluffy.
What is worrying a lot of people, though, is that women might be tempted to give up work during these years because of childcare costs and fall behind in their careers. It's a big hit, but it shouldn't be made catastrophic for the primary caregiver's career.

thesigmamum but that describes us entirely. dH has his own business, employs a lot of people, came from nothing. He has worked for it himself. We have a big mortgage, pay private school fees out of earned income, and pay a lot of tax. We have had no help, ever, with money. And yet I don't feel entitled to CB. It's nice to have but it doesn't change our lives.

I just think there isn't an easy answer to it. People believe it is their right. This has become a millstone around the governments neck. There has to be a cut off point somewhere, but FWIW I don't think they've got it right this time.

Quite, thetasignamum. We have no family money, and no Great Expectations in terms of future inheritances. All we have is what dh earns. I was reading that we are the people who will slide back down the social scale in the next two generations. We come from nothing, and we will return there. A bit of brainpower made us uppity, and we believed that working hard in professional jobs would secure our and our children's futures. Ha bloody ha.

Where do you think the cut-off point should be, downnotout?
I think at around £80k, with my amazing token payment for NI if the primary caregiver needs to keep pension credits going.

Doingmecleaning-"YANBU. A lot of income tax on £960 pw still leaves you with a lot of money.

If your mortgage is that high that you cannot afford to live on the income you earn you need to downgrade."

We live in the south east, We have no debt , a small mortgage with no chance of moving (downgrading as you call it) as this will incure 20K in fees, we are only in a 3 bed house! We drive old bangers, My husband is just over the threshold and I am self emplyed on 10K so why should I lose my child benefit when my neighbours earn £44k each and keep it!!

We dont have a lot of surplus money and I need my £1700!!