To not be saving child benefit

[cadburyegg]

So we have 2 DC, one 3yo the other 4mo. We claim child benefit for them. It goes into our joint account and helps a little with our daily expenses. I have worked part time since the 3yo was born so it’s helpful.

In laws came over last night and somehow this topic came up. MIL was aghast that we are not saving it up for the children when they are older. We do save for them but only a small amount per month. Her words were “you’re not poor so you should be saving it up for their first car or similar”. Well no we aren’t poor but we aren’t rich.

I thought child benefit was supposed to help with the cost of raising kids not be a saving fund for them? AIBU??

[cherish123]

YANBU- it is meant to help with the costs of raising a child.

[flutteryleaves]

you can do what you want with it.

families i know where both parents earn just below the threshold limit (grossing jointly £90,000 per year use it for i-pads and saving for kids' first cars because they just dont need the money for basic, routine essentials. lucky them i guess!

[pinkpantherpink]

Your MIL is daft

I know of people who did save it, and considered it their child's money. But that is not the norm.

She is unreasonable in her judgement. Quite frankly, it has nothing to do with her.

[purplestrawberry2]

MIL totally unreasonable. We save ours but only because of the child benefit extra tax thing so at the end of every year we use it to pay what we owe and any left over we spend on school uniform / clothes in next size up etc.

The child benefit thing completely irks me though that it is based on individual income rather than household income, so if one earns £55,000 and the other parent doesnt work you have to pay some of it back whereas two parents earning £49000 a year still get every penny. It just doesnt strike me as fair.

[DeadGood]

Your in-laws have very outdated financial views OP. Saving money isn’t what it used to be. If you put that money into a savings account, it will be worth far less by the time they are adults due to inflation and low interest rates.
Much better that you use the money now to improve their lives as they grow up.

[UrgentScurryfunge]

Slight tangent but a major pitfall of the threshold and working parent/ SAHP (most likely to be mother) is that receipt of CB adds to the non-working parent's NI contributions for their state pension. We know of families that hadn't claimed as parent 1 is over the threshold, and parent 2 is missing out in their old age because they thought they would only have to pay the CB back and didn't realise that they needed it for NI.

Although in its current state the state pension is little compared to the private pensions that that family may be budgeting on, there could be various consequences in the future if people aren't eligible if services such as personal and healthcare became linked. The most basic and least hypothetical is in the event of the split of the couple and not being able to access the private pension.

[Candyflip]

We saved the child benefit for the children to go to university/go travelling/buy a car/house deposit. Then dipped into it. Then tried to replace it. Then dipped into it again. By the time the kids went to uni, there was a tiny amount left. But we are a lot better off now than when we had our babies in our early twenties. We can easily afford for them to go to have all those things now, so it was the right thing to do dipping into the money when we needed it. Your situation may change by the time your kids are older, if you need the money now, use it.

[DeadGood]

Agree Candyflip. This will be an unpopular view but personally I think people should use any means to overpay on their mortgage or otherwise raise themselves out of debt, to free themselves up and improve their long term financial prospects.

[Snappedandfarted2018]

My opinion is if you can afford to save the child benefit you shouldn’t be allowed to claim it as clearly you don’t need it. It’s not up to the goverment to provide savings for people, goverment help should be to make sure the child’s current needs are met ( I.e rent, food, clothing etc)

100-% agree it’s to help families not to put in a saving accounts when their older personally I think the cut off needs to be reduced if it’s getting put into saving as those families don’t need it.

[FASH84]

We're not in this position yet by for those who save it what do you do for the second child? Do they just get less in savings because service child benefit is less or do you then have to top it up to make it fair?

[FASH84]

*second child benefit

[Snappedandfarted2018]

I think it’s appalling higher earners are benefiting from a child tax credit when they don’t need it and there’s families using food banks. The cut off should be 35k max

[JeezYouLoon]

I 'save' the child benefit and use it to buy uniform, school trips, lunch money and anything else my DCs need.

I'm firmly in the camp that if you can put it away until they are adults then you shouldn't claim it. I knew a family who used it towards their mortgage on their holiday home in Spain

[Kit10]

I remember when I was a teenager my mum was HORRIFIED to find someone she knew gave CB as pocket money, to her that was spoiling a child incessantly. CB always has and will for several more years been used for childcare for us. We save a little for them but not from CB.

[Candyflip]

Ooh yes kit my best friend in the 80s was given the child benefit as her pocket money! I tried to ask my mum to do the same. It did not go down well. At all.

[Lollipop30]

All my friends save their CB we had this exact conversation once, but in my opinion they don’t need it. You have to remember you’re still entitled to it on a joint income of up to 100k and you definitely shouldn’t need it with that income.

[KanielOutis]

Are people who claim child benefit expected to have no savings? We save regularly, not exclusively child benefit, but a portion of household income is saved. What about if the washing machine breaks down, the boiler blows or the car needs repairing. These are things that will happen so it is foolish to have no savings.

[Foggymist]

When ds1 was born mil asked what we were going doing with his child benefit. I deflected the question because it's none of her damn business and she very proudly told me they had saved every penny of child benefit for each of their 5 children, they never spent one bit of it and each child got it when they were an adult. I just thought well clearly you didn't need it if you were able to do that with it!

[pointythings]

Snapped I think the cut-off for child tax credit does sit round about that point. I'm on about 329k and I get a little bit, not a lot. It does taper off.

It helps though, because as a single parent I have to do it all myself.

[pointythings]

£29k, obviously. Not 329K.

[Firesuit]

I doubly disagree with people saying that those who don't need child benefit shouldn't claim it.

Firstly, it makes no sense to have a double-standard in your financial relations with the government. You don't get what you consider right or fair when the law says you should get less. So logically, you shouldn't take less when the law gives you more than you think is right or fair.

Secondly, there's nothing wrong with universal benefits. (Despite the withdrawal from some high-earners, child benefit is still closer to being a universal benefit than a means-tested one.) Universal benefits are simpler and cheaper to administer. They are also not necessarily a cost. When paid to someone who is a taxpayer, they should be viewed as negative tax up to the point where they have offset all the taxes paid. Only when someone pays less in tax than they receive in benefits should we regard them as a benefits recipient.

[FlyingDandelionSeed]

Are people who claim child benefit expected to have no savings?

Apparently according to various people on this thread they are not supposed to have savings, holidays, mortgages or any luxuries...

We have all of those things (in moderation) and get child benefit, we just throw it in the pot though so horrified judgemental posters can feel free to imagine it goes on whichever of those upsets them most.

We also spend a fuck ton more than £80 on providing the kids with food/warmth/shelter of course, but we are still so evil 'stealing from the kids' etc.

[BadMoodBetty]

We're not in this position yet by for those who save it what do you do for the second child? Do they just get less in savings because second child benefit is less or do you then have to top it up to make it fair?

Sit the child benefit down the middle and then too up as and when we are able. All money DS gets for Christmas, birthdays etc goes into his bank account. Second child would be the same. If they have different amounts, they have different amounts. (Second child is purely hypothetical)

I don't see anything wrong with saving it. We are a low single income family, we go without other things in order to save. As long as we are able, I'll save his CB. DH grew up neglected, his absolute priority is to provide and save for DS future.

[BadMoodBetty]

Split*

[Biblio78]

YANBU.
Child benefit is to help raise children, and also pays NI contributions to the partner who was usually left without a pension due to part time/ irregular years of earning due to raising children, historically women, but the main caregiver. You know this is rot... much better to spend it on fruit and veg/ after school activites/ school uniform whatever than save it for a car when they are older!