To ask what you do with child benefit

[Gemma273]

Basically this.. so I've always since my DC has been born split it in half, half into savings account for DC, half into our account to cover clothes, shoes, activities etc for DC. This discussion recently came up at a toddler group I go to and everyone said they put it into savings and now I feel guilty that I split it.

So what do you do?

It gets spent on life. Clothes, food, bills etc. That's the whole point of it - it's to help the family with the living costs of having children, not to save for their education or a holiday.

The should argument is interesting.

People saying it should not be saved - what do you propose should occur? Until and unless the governement prohibits the saving - and physically steps in to prevent people from saving this amount - people will budget their total household finances and save what they can including the child benefit.

I am just curious what the proposition is here -

1. government manually checks who does what with the CB and prevents the CB from being saved? How would this work?

2. Parents who save the CB dont save the CB and use it buy food? And then they now have a comparable amount left over which they then save anyway!

3. Parents who save the CB - dont save the CB and donate it to a food bank or charity or find a way to donate it back to the government?

It just goes into the general money pot. Some money does go into savings for the kids but if needs be it will get spent on petrol/food etc. The idea that it should only be used for certain things is ridiculous.

So - pursuing the should argument further - i.e. people "should not" save child benefit - I could say -

We spend the child benefit on clothes and bills. and....
as a separate independent matter -- we as a household save £Xa month for our DC, an X a month for us.

See the problem here? Nobody can actually police what the CB is spent on.

Unless - a blanket rule is introduced by the government as "Thou shalt not receive CB if thou can afford to save" - which I dont see how it will work unless the salary threshold is lowered even further....

Goes into household budget. We do save a bit each month for DD but that's not linked to child benefit.

If you save it for the child and have more than one child, does the second one get less saved for them?!

I think this thread just goes to show how many people shouldn't be receiving child benefit. Only those in need should be given any type of benefit not people are saving it!!

It goes into my current account and is part of the pot that is spent on household expenses, clothes for DC, clothes for me, entertainment for the family, sports clubs, medical needs, household repairs, running the car that brings her places, school and its expenses (books, uniform, sports equipment, stationary), her clubs, and some items that have nothing to do with DD like books or hobby materials for me or an occasional dinner out with DH (she joins us for many breakfasts/lunches/early birds as well)..... - she gets all the CB and a heck of a lot more spent on her over the years!!

It just goes into the account with everything else. I do however also pay into a savings account for dc, but never really connected the money.

This post entirely proves what I was saying just above.

Unless a system arises where the government physically prevents households making any savings at all from receiving the child benefit (i.e. completely excludes households who save at all as a category - from households who receive CB nd make these non-overlapping groups) - it is impossible to prevent people from saving CB or doing what they want with it. Presumably the govt has thought about this and decided - for one reason or another - that it is either pointless or foolish to try to make 1) people that can receive CB and 2) people who can save - entirely seperate groups.

So - like @Sprogonthetyne I too will say - 1. We as a household manage to save X each month. 2. We as a household get CB into our main account with everything else.

The only way this can be prevented is if the state intervenes and seperates folk who can do No 1 above from folk who receiving CB. Which doesn't work.

I always feel so guilty I don’t save anything from my kids CHB. But the truth is I’ve always needed to use it, for childcare, then for food, then for their clubs now I mainly use it for a mix of their food shopping, bus fares to school and pocket money. I wish I could save some but I’m on a low income these days and just need to use it.

It goes in the general pot!

that said, I put a similar amount in their savings so could easily have said it was this.

Otherwise you’d be saying people who earn under £60,000 shouldn’t be saving for their kids which is mad.

i should say that I pay back some of my CB through taxes so in fact putting more than the CB I actually get in savings

I have 4 DC, the eldest is 15. We have never had enough money that we can save it. It has always paid for food, clothes, water, heating, a home etc.

We are, just about, now about to start saving half and using the other half for day to day costs.

Goes into family pot, gets spent on whatever. In my head it goes towards nursery.

I think "should" can mean that it shouldn't be saved at the expense of the child now. So don't save all the CB and have them in too-small clothes/say you can't afford fresh fruit.

I don't get it , because although it's meant to be for the mother, you don't get it I your husband earns over a certain amount of money. Just like I don't get PIP because of the same reason. I am very lucky because dh is very generous and wonderful but I always think about other wives and mothers in my situation whose partners are horrible and they have no money for themselves or their children!

Same… all these people putting it into savings, gosh it must be nice not to actually need the money! And their kids get a nice little pile of cash waiting for them when they’re older, wealth going to wealth, same old same old.

So what do you think SHOULD occur?

1. should the government we doubt absolutely any household who can save anything at all and prevent those households from receiving child benefit? Because establishing an income threshold clearly want to do it because even on the same income some people can save more than others.
2. or should people who manage to save anything at all be forced to donate their child benefit to a selected charity in one way or another? How would this be enforced?

till the time either of these options actually are enacted and enforced - and policed - things do stay as they are. in which case The child benefit will continue to go to both 1) families who either manage to save something at the end of the month 2) as well as families who don’t manage to save anything at the end of the month.

We doubt * = weed out

You also earn your pension credits whilst receiving child benefit. If you don’t have enough credits you’ll be asked to top up. You can check your credits on hmrc. If you work part time and don’t pay NI then this is really helpful… hence why it’s means tested on one income.

ours gets swallowed up on bills.

I'm surprised at how many people have it earmarked. As with some other pps, mine just goes into the family pot. We do save a small amount for our children monthly but how can you argue we don't need it as much as others who don't save a penny? We buy virtually no meat for example and I've not taken a flight in years. Unless you know everyone's household spending you can't really say if who is and isn't in a position to save, unless it goes to the very poorest. Even then, the money doesn't always reach the children in the family.

I actually also don't see the problem with two income families receiving it. It is a huge luxury to choose to not work because one partner is a higher earner. We work long hours, are university educated etc but are in professions that max out at about £40k. As such we spend a load on childcare and incur extra costs we wouldn't if one of us didn't work or worked very part time.

I consider it money for him, so I'm saving that and an extra £50 per month (so around £130 pm) in an account which will cover things like clothes, Christmas, birthdays, big items such as new carseats/garden toys etc and eventually school uniforms.

Once my maternity drops to stat (I get 6 months full pay) I'll use it to cover my bills, then when I go back to work some of it will have to supplement the nursery fees.

Eventually it will go back to savings for bigger purchases like school uniforms/christmas

I've always used it for the intention it was meant. It goes towards clothes, food, heating etc, not that it goes far.

I put it towards nursery before she started school and now I pay about £50 per month into savings for her but the rest is towards bits and pieces she needs - so swimming costumes, swimming lessons, rainbows, the ice creams…she does ok!

christmas and birthdays and holiday spends