Abolish High Income Child Benefit Charge....

[Mewli]

Because it is an ill thought of tax. Any tax that is signed into law must at least be broadly fair. If the Government could not be asked to design a law appropriately then they shouldn't collect this tax. The HMRC taxes those families with a single person earning £50,000 and above, but leaves families with couples earning £49,999 each . I feel this tax was allowed to pass because it was just easier to convince the electorate that these "rich people"(earning £50,000 and above should pay more ) instead of designing an appropriate tax.

Lion - no, it works the other way. A couple earning £49k each will be paying substantially less tax than a single earner on £98k, and also be getting child benefit

we are a one wage family, and lost CB, it's annoying when we are just over the threshold, and almost £100,000 2 working people families can get it...it was a massive struggle to lose that money..(large mortgage, bought at top of market etc etc)

Which is one thing if you are a two parent family and 1 parent is doing childcare so you don't have that outgoing.
Not so rosy for a single parent family who would probably be footing a not insignificant childcare bill at that level of earnings.

An no one pays little tax,....eveything is taxed, food, fuel, clothing, everything you buy...20% VAT is a huge tax on nearly everything...there are no non-taxpayers in this country...!!!!!!

Child benefit should go back to universal because a)means tested benefits are an admin headache and b) they result in people looking at other groups of people with suspicion.

I agree with pp that it should be universal. It is a recognition in our tax system that children cost money to raise and are of benefit to the whole of society, not just their parents. I also agree that it is important that everyone is an equal stakeholder in the tax and benefit system.

I think the withdrawal could have been much more fairly effected by making CB taxable in the same way as ESA and CA.

I'd like to see CB back to Universal.
I've seen enough financial abuse threads to know that just because a man earns money doesn't mean a woman sees any of it.
CB was originally conceived as a "wallet to purse transfer" designed to given women and children a little independence.
If some people get a little extra money they don't need; that's a small price to pay afaik. That little bit of money could be a lifeline to someone else and we've no way of knowing who.

I am glad to know I am not alone in finding this charge unfair. I would really love to have it abolished however it still seems that lots of people think people earning over £50k living anywhere in the UK have enough income and should be prepared to give up more. It seems like a race to the bottom as far as wages are concerned.

There are winners and loses with any system.
2 working parents will normally have higher outgoings ,including but not limited to childcare
The couple with a SAHP can increase their income by the SAHP getting a job

The government policy is to encourage people in to work

No doubt the Tories will get rid of CB all together eventually thus solving the problem !

When this was first being introduced I wrote to my MP , as did many others , complaining that it was unfair to families with a single income so it's not that the govt don't realise , they just don't care . Apparently it's cheaper to run it this way than to do some kind of means testing on an entire household income , at least that was the reply I got at the time .

wouldn't say an income of £50k was great to support our family of 3 kids and occasionally 2 teenagers.

That's ridiculous, we support a family of four on half that. You need to have a serious look at your budget if it's not great.

Rangirl the issue for me is that those raising DC have been the losers of all the "austerity" cuts. I use inverted commas because there has not been much actual austerity but rather a transfer of income from those raising children (TC cuts and CB restriction) to the rest of the working age population (increase in PA) and pensioners (triple lock)

Tory divide and conquer in action again really - pit people against each other and get them pissed off.

We earn about 90k a year between us, but it's just under 50k for my husband and just over 40k for me. We do claim it - anything helps with the London cost of living!

as PP have said, it penalises single parents so it should be based on household income

Also, FWIW, I'd be more than happy if, going forward, Child Benefit was only paid for the first 2 children in a family
(obviously needs lots of caveats about what if your second child was twins etc.! and couldn't be enforced for people who already have more than 2 children)

Not Abolish buy yes should be administered fairly.

We earn between £55000-60000 between us, we rely on child benefit to help pay our child care . in a 2 parent household, if one parent earns £50000 then the other parent has the option of working to top up income. I can see that it would be unfair for a single parent earning that amount though. It will never be ideal anyway, a £50,000 income in some areas is a good income, in others it will barely pay the mortgage. A fairer way to do it would be to say income of more than 30,00 after childcare expenses and average living costs in your area , but that would be a nightmare to work out!!

Just to add another angle to this....

It was always my understanding that when CB was first introduced, it was specifically given to the mother to ensure that she had access to at least some money within her control. So that is a sort of precedent.

Now we know that financial abuse is a very real thing and not uncommon. So how many SAHMs, with partners earning over the threshold, are now worse off because the partner forced them to stop claiming CB (to save them paying the extra tax) and didn't make up the shortfall?

This is the one benefit which works for my family - I earn 52k but after pension is under the threshold and DH earns 38 - 42k depending on bonus. We have 4 children so claim about 3150 a year and this is such a small portion of what we are paying in tax that I see it as a rebate against the years of high childcare costs, running 2 vehicles for work etc etc

It should all be based on household income. Ridiculous that it's individual income 😡

I agree that household income should be taken into account rather than individual salaries. I don't think that very high earners should receive CB though.

It's not fair, I agree with you op.

It's so wrong that you can earn so much and keep child benefit when April will see tax credits reduced to those with more than 2 children.
There is no way a Tory gov would take it away from high earners though, they'll hit the poor and the middle, but leave their fat chums able to claim.
It really is disgusting.

If you have a household income over 60k you don't need cb.
I know childcare is expensive but we live in times of "If you can't afford them, then don't have them"
You can't have one rule for the rich and another for the poor without it being unfair.
There are lots of sahm's who would like to work, but can't afford the childcare. I don't think others earning more should be able to have it.

"Today 13:28 atheistmantis

wouldn't say an income of £50k was great to support our family of 3 kids and occasionally 2 teenagers.

That's ridiculous, we support a family of four on half that. You need to have a serious look at your budget if it's not great"

Our mortgage is £12k a year and childcare is £13k. That's your £25k and we've not eaten. We have to earn £50k to cover the costs of those.

What budget suggestions do you have for me?

Budget solutions, don't work and save £13K on childcare, it's expensive and doesn't seem like you can afford it.
The worlds gone mad