To think Child Benefit goes into the family kitty?

[summerfish]

I was talking to a friend yesterday, and she said that she saves all of her child benefit in a special account, which she will give their children when they are 18.

I have never done this at all! Child benefit goes straight into an account which my husband and I use for family expenses. Also I have no idea how this would work practically, as the first child would presumably get a much larger slice of the pie, owing to the fact that the second child gets less CB! Not to mention, the fact that I have to pay my child benefit back via my self assessment in any year that I earn over a certain amount.

AIBU To think that child benefit is to be used for every day expenses?

DDs child benefit is her pocket money so it goes straight into her piggy bank each week!

Now that it’s means tested, I think if you can afford to not use it then you shouldn’t be getting it. It’s meant to go towards the costs of raising a child, not be a savings plan.

You could argue that if you really don’t need it for weekly living expenses, then you really don’t need it.

Mine is spent on my child. It goes into my account, I spend exactly that amount on her - lots of things, from clothes to after school activities to saving for a bike. That's what it's there for.

You could argue that if you really don’t need it for weekly living expenses, then you really don’t need it.

Bollocks, some people who don't earn much are careful with their money and can afford to save it.
Our TC pays school fees, we need it as low income family. Cb is saved for their future.

I save my sons. We don't need it for day to day expenses.

You can do what you want with it but the ‘point’ of it is to pay towards the day to day living expenses of children. If people didn’t need it for that then why is it being paid? There are better ways to support young people as a nation when they are 18.

@maddiemookins16mum

You could argue that if you really don’t need it for weekly living expenses, then you really don’t need it.

Agree.

It goes in our joint account here. We have a savings account that we pay into monthly for DS and will open another for DD when she arrives. The child benefit goes towards nappies, food, clothes.

I do similar to you Op, we put £10 from CB in an account for DD, plus £10 standing order from each of our "spending" money.

So she gets £30 a month plus any family gift for birthdays and Xmas, which our grandparents often do. We will do the same for DC2.

However if money's ever tight we do dip in to it if there's something she needs. We will make sure they are the same amount once they get to an age when they might need it

You could argue that if you really don’t need it for weekly living expenses, then you really don’t need it

It depends on how you look at it. We did save ours because we knew there would be no other way we could ever afford any kind of savings or nest egg for the kids ....but we have been really frugal and thrifty, not in terms of looking after the kids, but our own needs. I went without tons of stuff that people on here seem to regard as essential even when on low to average incomes. Maybe that more comfortable lifestyle is achieved by spending the CB. Hardly essential though, since we managed without it.

Years ago when my dm collected the CB from the post office, she’d give us some pocket money and use the rest for us for bits and pieces like clothes or shoes.
Quite frankly, use it for anything you want.
When dds were small and it wasn’t means tested we used it towards nappies, clothes and playgroups. We don’t receive it now, so hey ho.

I give my dd 13 her child benefit every week to buy things she needs. If she doesn't need anything she saves the money. She got more savings than me.
ds 3 I use his to buy him things when he needs them. The rest goes into his saving account.

I put our CB in a child saver. We each put £50 into an ISA a month for him as well. So he gets nearly £200 a month saved.

devlesko how on earth do you afford school fees? Aren’t they around 10k per year? Surely someone who can find a spare £70,000 per child during secondary school shouldn’t be getting any kind of benefit?

It would have been nice to use the CB for birthdays/Christmas/special things child-related, but we needed that money for food and bills, so that's what it got used on.

I think it's a perfectly reasonable way of using CB. I think if people can afford to keep it separate and save it up then they don't need it. In the old days, a lot of people who didn't need CB simply didn't claim it as they believed that was public spirited and the morally right thing to do. It did mean that there was more money in the pot to be distributed to those who did need it (or spent on Trident probably).

It goes in the family pot, but I know lots of people who save for their children each month and theoretically if they're saving the value of CB then it may as well be the CB being saved up.

Ours goes exclusively to baby related stuff

My friends mum used to save it for my friend to put toward a house deposit.

When it came to my friend buying a house her mum said she could only have it if she put her mum on the mortgage 🤣

It's a personal preference.
I save my DD, it goes into her savings account so she can access when she's older. I don't need it for day to day living, so don't see the point in just spending it for the sake of spending. If we were ever struggling then I'd of course use it should I need to.

@Mintychoc1

PP might have a child at private school through a scholarship or a fee reduction scheme which is very common.

Goes into the pot, and is most welcome some months!

My DM used to give it to me as an allowance once I was a teen

Growing up it was used for;

School shoes, coats, clothing.

Haircuts.

Hobbies.

School trips.

Books.

Basically all the basic necessities. As I grew older, if there was some left over my parents might have given it to me to choose my own clothes or for a cinema trip but more often than not it was used to keep me neat, presentable and educated!

If you can afford all those things then I’d probably put it in a children’s isa or education fund for university.

Indeed @Mintychoc1

PP might have a child at private school through a scholarship or a fee reduction scheme which is very common.

She did state that she uses TC for school fees (so perhaps tops up her scholarship/reduced fees) then saves her CB.

Some people also have family that help out with school fees and other expenses. Self employed can often show very low incomes quite legally. Lots of reasons really.

People have lots of different ways of saving and spending eg someone might socialise a lot and spend hundreds of pounds on that and another couple might do little that actually costs say go for walks - free activities to save money...