to think if they are taking MY child benefit away the letter should come to ME?

[PanicMode]

I don't want to start another debate about the fact CB is going - it IS going to hurt us as we have four children, but we'll have to live without it!

However, I am so cross that although the CB comes directly to me, the letter has gone to my husband. AIBU to feel as though the Govt have turned 50 years of feminism on its head and turned me back into a chattel?!

I have a question, one of the reasons a SAHP will continue to claim is because it protects their NI contributions. I think this is to do with pensions, but if anyone can clarify that I'd be grateful.

Our situation is that I earn above the threshold, but it varies year on year. My DH will be working part time. Should he claim it still, or will his work, earning about 8K per year, be enough to cover his NI contribution? Also, because some years I may earn less, I guess I should change it to his name and let him claim, just in case I earn less some years.

It all sounds very complicated! Guaranteed this won't be saving any money, with all this admin. Stupid.

I guess they are going to turn round in a few years and announce that the only solution is universal credit, combine tax credit and cb, parents who want to claim will do a joint form, those who don't can tick a box for NI contributions and get benefit on sliding scale depending on joint income and number of children. All this other messing around is just making it all so complicated on both sides.

Of course after childcare costs are deducted so joint income/ lone parent families not adversely affected.

Yes 3bunnies, I think that's where they're going with this. In a couple of years they'll announce that they tried to remove child benefit from the 'rich', but that it didn't work as well as they'd hoped (no surprise to the rest of us obviously). This is just their token gesture to say 'look, we're removing benefits from the better off'. Clearly it won't work, due to all the complications everyone's pointed out. Then they will scrap it completely or limit it to numbers of children or as you say, combine it with universal credit. They should not be doing this as a political point scoring exercise, particularly if the money saved is negligible. It is a waste of time and resources in my opinion, and just makes them look incompetent.

Originally they ruled out means testing cb because it would be 'too intrusive', but in reality now there must be a narrowing band of us who are not in some ways means tested, either for family tax credit, benefits or child benefit, and a lot of annomolies.

So I phoned the CB people - they "can't tell you what happens to your NI credits if you stop claiming, you need to phone them". Who bets that NI people send me straight back to the CB people.

What a total and utter joke.

I can well believe it PanicMode, they are incompetent at the best of times. My dh had an issue with them the other day on the phone. The man he was talking to insisted that the cuts were based on gross income. Dh explained that it was net adjusted income and told him that he was factually incorrect and insisted on speaking to a manager. The manager confirmed that my dh was correct and so dh asked to make a formal complaint regarding mis-information. The person in question hung up!!! We all need to log every incident and error that occurs and write to our MPs. If they receive enough letters they will have to take notice.

That is terrible IHGO.....yes, will log and complain.

If I ever get through to someone who has a clue that is......

I was cross the letter was addressed to DH but as it is him that is the highertaxpayerit makes sense just another nail in the coffin of my non e
excistence.

Just a note on what is being said on here and other threads about losing NI contributions if you do not claim your CB. This is incorrect apart from not receiving the money everything else will continue you will still be on the system to receive NI contributions against your pensionand your children willstillreceive their NI number automatically whenthey turn 16. You stillhave to registerif you have any new children but for those of us who lose it from now you will not be effected in terms of your pension. HMRC have assured of this. If your dh is not self employed or complete a tax return he will needto do this ifyou continue to claim which can be a hassle and if you get it wrong can lead to fines. You are better off not claiming for it.

I thought it was an HMRC cock up when DH got the letter, and that mine would be along in a minute...

But no, I'm the higher earner, I'm the CB claimant, surnames are the same, his employer comes after mine alphabetically, moon isn't in the fifth house, they managed to lose my details in the cock up a couple of years ago and still no letter. Maybe I can keep mine ?

They can't organise the proverbial in a brewery, can they?

I tried to do the online "how much will I still get thing" it asks for Gift Aid donations I.e. how much you are planning to donate 2013-14, how do I know how many of our friends are going to run marathons, a 1000 maybe

2 HRT payers in our house - DH earns more. I come first in the alphabet and claim the CHB - I've got the letter, he hasn't.

I want to know what happens if high earning DP moves out though - when can you start reclaiming CHB?

If you earn just over £50k do you lose it all? I thought it was staggered?

At least this might mean DP sorting his pension out, hopefully it'll take him just under the threshold.

DH has a smaller arse, maybe that's why he got the letter

Jack If you are just over the 50k you don't lose it all, I think I heard that it is an extra 1 percent tax. The reason people are keen to reduce it is that firstly it may be better that you benefit than the tax man, so you might want to have childcare vouchers, more pension or an unpaid holiday than start to lose money to the government - probably more relevant for those at the lower end of the spectrum. Secondly if you are over the 50k and continue to claim then the higher earner(s) will have to complete a tax return, which if they were PAYE they would previously not have had to tackle.

katedan Can you explain how that works? I thought that was the case but the person I spoke to didn't know how do do that for me.

Tax return? Seriously? Argh!

No letter has arrived here yet. Should we be contacting them or wait for it to appear?

I hope this thread is wrong. I hope that DP won't have to do a fucking tax return. I hope that he's just under. Ugh.

I'd support this (maybe) if it was a) fair and b) not going to cost more to administer than it saves.

Fucking fucking twatting tory wankers. Arrrrghhh

According to all that I've read it will be a tax return from 50000 to 60000; and they are hoping that most people will think like you Jack and decide they would rather not claim than have the hassle of a tax return. In my previous post it was slightly wrong, over the threshold you pay 1 percent of cb for every 100 pounds earnt. So for a family with 3 children and a net taxable pay of 52000 you would pay 25pounds in every 100 pounds back. If however the 'high' earner took 1 weeks unpaid leave, they would lose 1000 pounds from their net taxable pay, but after tax and paying back 250 pounds cb, that would equate to a cost to the family of just 335pounds. I reckon when we do go over I'm going to be seeing more of dh!

No, I will keep exclaiming! Am that doing so means DP has to do a fucking tax return!

Um. *claiming. Though I will also keep exclaiming!

Oh yes, I think most people will keep claiming, but they are hoping that people won't bother. I think for us we will probably avoid in the lower 50s through salary sacrifice, maybe claim in the mid 50s and if that were hassle and dh ever got that far, not bother if we were around the 58-59k as at that stage you are only getting about 300-500 pounds and might not be worth the hassle, especially as pay would be higher then anyway, and at that stage I will be working more with all the dc in school.

It's all bullshit.

I live near Cameron. WHen should I start camping/campaigning outside his house.

Ugghh... I am so fucking angry about alll of this. Like I said earlier, it would be reasonable if it saved money. There is no way on this earth that this is a good idea.

Fuck you, Ham Face Cameron. You utter TOOL.