To think that people who complain about not getting child benefit because they earn above the threshold can fuck right off?

[CosetteFauchlavent]

Firstly I should say that I am applying this to people who are coupled up - it's very different for single parents.

I have an acquaintance, friend of a friend, who I'm not particularly keen on but my friend insists on inviting to group outings etc. She describes herself as "the girl who has everything" and has said several times that she's going back to work after maternity leave even though her DH earns enough for her to be a SAHM.

Anyway, the other day she came out with "It's so unfair that people on benefits get child benefit for doing nothing, we earn too much to qualify WAAAH." The "WAAH" is not my addition, she actually said it.

AIBU to think SBU?

I think it would have been fairer to scrap it all together and amalgamate it into child tax credits BUT raise the child tax credits for the poorest families with the money they are saving from the CB.

Oh and the wealthy SAHMs I know said it wouldn't affect them as the accountant would just do a nice tax dodge so they could keep it (self employed husbands not PAYE).

People tell me it must be nice not having to work, whilst they have two grannies doing the free childcare for them, hey but I'm not allowed to say anything as my DP earns too much.

YABU, utterly unreasonable in fact. I spent a long time paying taxes which funded other people's child benefit. DH earns over the cut off but as others have said a family can earn double the income and still get child benefit. My work is freelance with ebbs and flows in income and it would be really useful to have CB. It also fails to protect women who rely on financially abusive partners for their income - CB can be a real lifeline for them.

It pisses me off that we don't get CB after funding it for others for so many years.

I would really like our useless politicians to be reading this thread, especially with a general election only two months away. I really hate them for this.

Also, I am bloody annoyed that families earning 90k between them are able to squirrel this money away for their dcs. I have friends on a joint income of about 80k and 3 properties between them. It all goes in savings accounts for their kids to pay for uni fees. How is that right, when the single income family on 60k don't have this luxury. It's such a load of bollocks. I'm amazed they ever got away with it.

I am a lone parent. I earn too much to get it. I have huge childcare costs, mortgage and bills. I get no help with anything.

I'm kind of with JackShit. DP and I earn just under 60k between us and have to pay for rent, bills and childcare with that. Yet we manage to rent (though not buy) in a fairly nice area of London and we aren't extravagant, though we don't exactly go without. We have one DS. Just one as that's all we can afford. I'm afraid I can't find much sympathy for people who complain they earn too much for CB yet choose to have several kids who they send to private school.

Yes it is an unfair system if it doesnt take into account joint income and yes its unfair to take it off people who were already getting it but there's people who manage on a joint income of far less than 60k. And in case anyone suggests it, yes I'm sure they get benefits and tax credits but I doubt those would be worth 25k!

YABU, high earners pay lots of tax & I'm fed up working 12 hour days to fund fat lazy slobs who can't be ar*ed to get a job 'because it wouldn't be worth it'
Left wing 'do gooders' in this country have a lot to answer for
Rant over

Yes and why not bring back the workhouse while we're at it, right?

If they are medically fit & of working age then what is wrong with working for their benefits cariad
Goodness knows there are plenty of things that could be done to improve local communities

Single parents on an income slightly above the threshold are by far the worst victims of this. A single mum has to pay full housing costs and full childcare costs. So she is far worse off than where a wife is a SAHM, incurring no additional housing costs and no childcare costs.
Assuming that Pis is for real, perhaps he should stop reading the DM and look around him a bit. He might notice that a large number of people are desperate for work, but that there isn't enough of it to go round. And that plenty of others are in work but don't earn enough to survive on. Probably because bosses like him keep most of the money for themselves. A society where some live the life of riley while others depend on hand-outs of tins of beans which they can't even afford to heat up is a broken society.

Um, a lot of people who receive benefits do work.

We have lost child benefit as well, well I kept claiming it so we have to pay it back via tax code.

My Dp earnt just under £60,000 last year. I don't work, was made redundant and I am struggling to get another job.

We are really struggling at the moment, don't buy myself anything.

My DP also owes tax from a previous year, as a result he has a ridiculously low tax code for a whole 12 months.

I think it is just really stupid the way it has all been worked out.

Who the fuck sends several kids to private school on 60K? Local comp all the way for me. Could never afford private school in a million years.

I think the gist of this thread is that we realise we won't starve with the loss of CB but we are frustrated and upset at the unfairness of how it is worked out. Most of us would put up and shut up if it wasn't for the fact it is not family income.

Totally agree notnaice

Sweetkitty

How can the self employed dodge tax? The cleverest accountant can't just make income vanish and there are only a certain amount of expenses you can claim for.
Unless there are many dc in the family and the income is very low, there would be few people able to afford a sahm from tax credits.
We can afford it on a small top up because our outgoings are minimal.
With a large mortgage/rent, and any other debts, it wouldn't be manageable and isn't for most. That's why most families have a joint income now.

I guess the self employed could" employ" their wife or bump up pension contributions. Re the sahp parent thing not contributing yada yada. Well I like to think that by not working it leaves a job available for a non working family. As a family unit we pay more tax than 2 people earning the same and we lose child benefit.

With 3dc we have no chance of sending dc to private school.

adventure

I suppose they could, but surely that would make more money for the family and cb or any benefit would decrease. Plus cb doesn't have employment as a criteria.

It's a bloody unfair system though. You could have a couple both earning just under the threshold, who receive it, then a couple with one high earner and one lower earner who do not qualify, even if their combined income is lower than the first couple. These things should always be fair, but the Government has made it inequitable in a bit to make it easy to administer.

Some years we will qualify, some years we won't and will have to pay it back. My colleague doesn't qualify, but his wife is a SAHM, I think it unfairly penalises them.

Only on MN can people be struglling on £60K per year. What planet do these people live on. Not the same one as I do evidently.

If you have a SAHM you save a lot of money on childcare.
The child benefits rule is far unfairer on single mums, but guess what, they're not exactly a Tory priority.
Not that it affects me, as I earn vastly under the cut-off.

Viviennemary

I used to think this too, as 60k is more than double our family income, but for those with high mortgages, childcare and debt living in the SE it isn't so much I suppose.

Because of the daft rules the business could generate an income of 80k. Say. If earned by one loss of chb. Split between two they keep child benefit.
Agree single parents paying for child care worst affected but also family with one high earner and one low earner. They have same expenses as two on 49k say but lose child benefit. Hence why little point in me working right now.

Loose