Oh bless George Osborne is giving up his child benefit

[PolkadotCircus]

......soo all us very squeezed middle parents should feel a whole lot better.

He's written to The Daily Fail to let us all know of his sacrifice and how it is the "fair and right decision".

George would just like to ask how exactly is it fair and right that amongst the other 85 % of families who will still get child benefit there are many earning far,far more as a family than many losing it?You know those on 80,90 and even 100k.

Also if you come from another European country you'll keep it regardless of what you earn,again how is this fair or right?

You waffled on proclaiming the need for your other cuts but frankly I didn't bother reading any further as being part of a party with such blatant disregard for fairness or common sense I felt it was a waste of my time reading anything else.

Oh and being worth£4 million with a nice wallpaper million £ trust fund on top doesn't really qualify you to lecture those of us hard working families at the other end of the food chain on making sacrifices.You know those of us that have always worked hard, with zero trust fund,private education or Oxbridge network to get us on in life.Those of us that you keep clobbering time and time again.

The fact you seem to think we're all coffee drinking yummy mummies who could go without a months worth of manicures to cover our loss of CB just shows how ridiculously out of touch you really are.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm just going to put another jumper on(central heating isn't often on these days and we don't have a WFA to fall back on like many wealthy pensioners).Need to get Dp up so he can sort out his bike for work Monday.That would be the push bike he cycles many miles on each day after a demanding day of work as we've been priced out of public transport.Also need to try and eek out 3 times packed lunches for Monday from the meagre offerings in my Lidle filled cupboards as currently on day 4 of our no spend January and can't afford school dinners.

Anytime you want to give me tips on stretching our meagre budget even further in order to cover our loss of Child Benefit feel free!

Am a high earning single parent. Still have childcare cost to cover. But am not entitled to CB any longer. Whilst I dont have a problem with giving it up, two parents can between them earn more than me, pay less tax and keep theirs

A joke

Laughable. Salary as an mp. Rent from the Central London flat he lets out and shares in Osborne and Little.
Nice little earner. Saying: 'My salary doesn't take me over the 50% tax bracket' is very different to my income doesn't take me over, isn't it. I strongly suspect his income does.

What can we do?? write to (tory and libdem) mps?? Vote with our feet at the next election?? I guess that's all we can do.....

Dawndonna quite right. George Osborne is the biggest toxxer to EVER exist. Let's hope he gets kicked out from his seat at the next election. Waxker

testbunny as much as we would like George & Co to fall flat on their smug faces, we all know that people like this never do. Despite being covered in s**t, they always come up smelling of roses!

He may lose his position in Government, but he has a multi-million pounf fortune to fall back on and probably a cushy consultancy job waiting for him to walk into. Politicians rarely ever fail themselves, only us.

Heh heh, Twinkle....
I reckon he got his manservant to - ahem - stand in for him.

I think the expense of childcare should be looked into....loads of minimum wage employees making chain nurseries etc etc rich.

I think Gove has his eye on Chancellor.

God help us all.

£1 in every £3 going on welfare includes pensions. Pensioners are the only group not being hit by the cuts. If they means tested the WFA they could save over a billion. My PILs think they are entitled to this because they "paid in all their lives and saved"! They don't think they were lucky enough to have secure jobs, no health problems etc which enabled them to save. They actually said they didn't know where the money would come from to heat their house if they didn't get WFA. They were sat on their brand new £7k sofa and had just showed us the brocheure of the cruise they have just booked!

The child benefit cut is so flawed it is ridiculous. I don't know how they have managed to get away with it. I belly laughed last night when they said on the news that DC wants to stay in Government until 2020! He really has got his head up his arse in the sand!

Technically speaking, Osborne can't give up 'his' Child Benefit, because CB is paid to mothers (unless he's a single dad and the news hasn't reached me ).

My only real objection to this benefit change is that CB has been a lifeline for women in financially abusive relationships with high-earning men, and now that lifeline is lost. Such women could at least count on this small amount of money coming to them directly, and now they can't.

I don't really care what Osborne has to say about this... But I am mildly curious to know what Mrs O thinks about losing the CB she has been receiving, on account of her husband's political posturing.

"My only real objection to this benefit change is that CB has been a lifeline for women in financially abusive relationships with high-earning men, and now that lifeline is lost. Such women could at least count on this small amount of money coming to them directly, and now they can't. "

Don't quite understand that argument - they can continue claiming - it would be taken out of Mr Financially Abusive's tax though.

Also this is incorrect: "Technically speaking, Osborne can't give up 'his' Child Benefit, because CB is paid to mothers (unless he's a single dad and the news hasn't reached me hmm )."

According to [[http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/start/who-qualifies/what-is-childbenefit.htm HMRC "If you're responsible for a child, you can normally get Child Benefit for them - even if you're not their parent.

You can get Child Benefit even if your child doesn't live with you, as long as:

you pay towards their upkeep
what you pay is at least the same as the amount of Child Benefit
the person your child lives with is not getting Child Benefit for them

If you and another person both claim Child Benefit for the same child, only one of you can get it."]]

You don't have to be the mother according to these rules (and nothing is stopping Mr Financially Abusive from claiming CB himself instead of his wife)

Mr X earns £60K+, Mrs X is a SAHM. Mr X controls the money and only gives Mrs X a pittance. Up 'til now, Mrs X at least received the CB direct to her own bank account; now Mr X can make the decision to 'opt out' and she will have nothing except what he gives her.

Or so I believe. I'd be happy to hear I am wrong...

Widow, that only applies if there is someone responsible for the child who is not their parent - a foster carer, say. If the child lives with his/her mother, then CB is payable to the mother.

flow -can you provide a link to where on the HMRC site it says that CB is paid to mothers only?

(Actually, bad example... To clarify, foster carers can't get CB - only family carers or others with residence/parental responsibility. But CB is paid to the mother if the child lives with the mother.)

Land don't get me started on WFA I could rant for hours.

There is also the free cavity wall insulation thing which pensioners qualify for.My parents are wealthy with a house already heated to Barbados temperatures all year round whilst we shiver.

Anyhoo dad was chuffed to bits with his free cavity wall insulation which now means one considers changing into a bikini when one visits so we looked into it(being the household actually freezing our arses off and having to keep the heating down).

What do you know we don't qualify as we're not in receipt of benefits or of pension age.

Why exactly are my taxes paying for wealthy pensions who holiday 4X a year to have free cavity wall when we are the ones freezing?????

That would be to keep the grey vote safe for the Tories then obviously-fair and the right thing to do George,I think not!

I'll have a look Widow... But I didn't say CB is "paid to mothers only"; it is paid to a child's main carer, and this is generally the mother. Obviously, if a child doesn't live with his/her mother, then the person who does care for him/her gets CB.

flow "To clarify, foster carers can't get CB - only family carers or others with residence/parental responsibility. But CB is paid to the mother if the child lives with the mother.) "

HMRC guidance, and the actual claim form seem to disagree with that.

The claim form says that it can be paid into an account, that's in the claimant's name, or the claimant's husband or wife or partner's name, or in both the claimant's and their husband, wife or partner's name.

Surely he's not actually giving it up but rather he's having it taken off him as he earns too much to get it? It's not like he's chosen to give it up.

Flow, my DH receives our child benefit. He is the SAHP in our household and I made sure that he received the child benefit so that he got his national insurance 'stamps' whilst he is caring for DC full time. It women or men that receive child benefit.

I have no gripes with George Osborne's income or wealth and don't think it's appropriate that he should be lambasted for that. However, his comment was ill-judged.

We don't need the cb money and I have no qualms about losing it however I don't believe I have to give it up but that I will continue to receive cb and my DH's tax will be adjusted accordingly. That seems fair to me and within the spirit of a benefit paid directly to the mother to be spent on the children.

However, it is entirely wrong that the decision for withdrawing the overall benefit is based on the income of one partner. It should take into account the overall income of the household so that situations where a couple can earn 99,000 keep the benefit but where a couple, with one partner earning 60k lose it. That is not right.

Yes, you're right Widow. It says it's "usually the mother, but doesn't have to be". So I guess in financially abusive relationships, women could already have lost this money. :(

I'm still mildly interested in what Mrs O thinks about this... I suspect wonder if it was her husband's political advisors' decision.

The Tories are incredibly stupid. They have basically just ensured that a huge percentage of households that would have voted for them will now definitely not. The child benefit cuts mostly affect the Tory heartlands so they have just pissed off most of their voters. They will definitely be out by 2015!

OP, I call bullshit on you 'European Countries' thing- show me a link to the rules that state this. My DH is from a European Nation, we're not exempt from this ruling in any way.