To ask how many of you know about the Child Benefit Charge?

[Ballstothisdotcom]

I had to repay over £6k a couple of years ago. Had to get out a loan to do it. The children were mine and not my husbands and I had always claimed as a single parent so just didn’t stop.

Have just read daily mail sad face story about this happening to another family.

My sister and her husband have always claimed it. They have never had it questioned. I just wonder if HMRC are blanket mail sending and hoping people will be honest.

I genuinely had no idea about it until we got the letter. It also seems grossly unfair that two people can earn £49999 per year but if one person goes over it you have to repay it. In our case it was my husband who went over the threshold just slightly so we had to pay back from the day we moved in together.

Any one else?

@Whatafustercluck that’s pretty much what happened to us.

When we first received CB it was at the time when everyone got it, DH’s salary then increased over the years to over 50k.
Our fault but just never thought about CB until we got ‘the letter’. We had to pay back about 6k which included penalties.

We cleared out our savings to and remortgaged to pay, they were adding more penalties and interest to the bill.
We probably could reclaim it now and only pay a bit back but never again!

It is not even an awful lot either, under £100.00 as a payment or does it depend on how many children you have still, it is an HMRC that is hot out if control! and also when my two were born there was a trust fund for my First in 2008 and then 2013 my second has different fund, in which we have no idea on how they doing and no access to apps to see what is happening either!! It is like pensions, or no consistent pension over the years. Benefits all round need an overhaul and start again... 💙

Yes I knew about it and yes I stopped paying it once I tipped the threshold.

Can someone answer me something? I only work pt and earn not a lot. Just over PA threshold, will I lose out on anything if I don't claim CB? Worried about NI contributions now.

We didn't know, had letter last October....had to pay back 10k......

Also dh saying I mustn't claim it as it's a right hassle is this true? He lost his job last year and although he's back in work he took a pay cut that means although he's still over the cb cut off point we lived to our means and I think we should claim it as a buffer to go on food bills etc until I can earn more (looking for better job now) and just pay it back next year.

Rainbow - not sure but why wouldn't you be claiming it anyway? I believe claiming CB means you can rely on those years for NI contributions purposes for state pension.
Whatsfustercluck - yes indeed. It's a minefield with benefit in kind to add and charity donations to deduct it's difficult to plan accurately. I thought I had planned well enough for the previous tax year but still had to repay a small amount. I've worked out that we will have to repay quite a bit this year so I'll make sure we do it before 31st Dec so as to repay via taxes as I will be on mat leave then so don't want to have to repay a big chunk of cash.

*I don't claim - I assume that as DH and I both earn high salaries the NI credits point is moot?

Depends whether you’re sorted pension wise and whether the 7k or whatever state pension will make a difference to you in old age.*

As she states she earns a salary then she is already paying NI so the NI credits are, indeed, a moot point. You don’t get EXTRA NI credits while claiming child benefit it just covers he bare minimum IF you aren’t paying NI already.

Thanks oblada we never claimed because when my dd was born my dh said he was no way doing a tax return for cb so I never claimed. I was working ft since dd 6 months but had a mental breakdown and ended up not working only for a few months then earning maybe £12.5k in the only job I could get that didn't require me to pay for childcare as I have none and it was my ft salary that covered it previously.
I don't understand it all tbh. Maybe im just not that clever!

Raindbowpanda - how much over the threshold is your DH? It would be worth it for you to claim to ensure your NI contributions are sorted. Best be safe on that front.
A tax return isn't hard to complete.

Also dh saying I mustn't claim it as it's a right hassle is this true?

Just register but say you don’t want the money. That way you get the NI credits, your child is “in the system” for an NI number at 16 and if your circumstances change it’s easier to ask for the money.

We wouldn't be eligible for anything looking at the current cut off. Thanks I did ask him having looked at this thread yesterday as it's me trying to cut down on the food bill.

Obviously I wasn't planning on a breakdown and then dh losing his job so our bills are still way over what we're earning and despite house being up for sale it's not selling so hopefully things will get better soon and I will be able to be back on a higher salary soon to make up the difference in both NI and money terms!

@BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou thanks I didn't know you could do this.

It's been mentioned several times that you can claim and then opt out of payment

Yes at least register but don't ask for the money so your NI are 'safe'. NI contributions are about number of years of contributions so you can't 'make up' the difference except by ensuring you work enough years overall. No harm in registering.
Don't forget: CB is assessed based on the last tax year's earnings, it's about the full year, you deduct pension contributions and charitable donations but add benefits in kind. So someone on 60k may still be perfectly entitled to CB as 10k may be going towards pension anyway. Between 50k and 60k is when you pay some of it back. After 60k (after deducting pension contributions etc) then you pay it all back.

It is very unfair. I know a millionaire who gets child benefit as he is below the income threshold, not needing a job n all.

We’ve never claimed it but what makes me furious is no-one told me when I had my baby that you’re supposed to fill in the application form anyway to protect you pension. By the time I found out I’d lost 2 yrs pension contributions. They should call it the pension protection form!!

How do you claim and not take the money so you still get NI state pension contributions?

@swimmingclubs

This is so helpful thanks all.

I thought I was pretty well up on this but I didn't know about the car stuff. Neither of us have one, so it's not relevant, but honestly I can see how people get caught, especially when their circumstances change.

I buried my head in the sand about this when my salary went above. Ended up having to pay back two years and a fine. After that we changed to claim the benefit so my DH gets his NI credits but not take the payment. Much easier than remembering to do self assessment and saving the money.

I would be ok with the £60k threshold as that’s a good wage if it was per household not person. Really grates on me that two people earning £49k would get it.

I still can't believe how oblivious we have been. I come from a country where everyone gets the benefit regardless of earnings, and as we were told to apply for it after having a baby in the UK I thought it would be the same thing here. We only had our baby in 2017 so wouldn't have been aware of any media coverage/issues etc it had caused prior, as children in general weren't on our radar. I'm not on social media but follow the news and current affairs etc, but I can honestly say that I have never seen it mentioned until last night. My husband was the same. Very odd.

I guess we never thought one of us would earn that sort of money, and then my husband started being promoted at work and his salary gradually increased over a couple of years, at which point we didn't really think about the child benefit. I have contacted the HMRC today and will get it sorted. I hope the bill isn't ridiculous.

I knew and stopped claiming as my DP could get a bonus that takes us slightly over. He may not get the bonus which means I could have claimed but I can’t take the risk!

I’m not eligible because my partner (child father) earns over the threshold. However, you should still submit the form but tick a box to say that you don’t want to claim any money. That way your national insurance is still sorted out ( I don’t know the details, my mum told me to do it!).

It is unfair though. Even though we’ve been together 6-8 and have a child, we have separate finances so it’s me that’s missing out on the £20-whatever a week . Someone I know suggested that the child vendor should be paid to the main child carer (assuming they earn under the threshold), but then tax deducted from the high earner. That seems fairer to me.

Child vendor! Whoops! Child benefit obvs!