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?

@AngeloMysterioso

*If you’re from a poor family that actually needs the money then it’s all been spent, no savings account for you, just maximum student loans, more of a struggle to get on the property ladder. If you’re from a rich family you get a big fat savings pot which will cover uni fees or a decent chunk of your first house deposit.

It’s still wealth going to wealth.*

So what you prefer those who save it, do? Surely if you were in the position to save it for your child's future, you would?

By very definition if you are putting it into a savings account why the fuck are people even receiving it? Obviously it's not needed.
It's a bit sickening tbh when I spend at least two days a week with not a penny to my name after bills.

The government doesn’t automatically hand child benefit to everyone after their child is born, you have to actually fill in the forms and ask for it.

So in my opinion, if you don’t need the money, don’t claim the money. Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to or should.

So in my opinion, if you don’t need the money, don’t claim the money. Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to or should.

Why shouldn't people? You never know when circumstances may change and even those who do save it may end up needing that money if the worst were to happen.

Do you think you'd receive more if some people didn't claim it because they didn't need it there and then? No of course not, so what difference does it make to you?

We have to pay some back, then the rest goes on thinks and £20 a month in savings...

Spend it on wine

Spend it all, on things for DD. Be that clothes, days out, toys etc. I might save it for a few months though and buy something big eg a swing and other months it goes straightaway on shoes.
But she has a whopping savings account funded by the grandparents, she’s 2 and it’s already 5 figures so I don’t feel pressure to save for her.

When we no longer have extortionate nursery costs we will probably save it all. But that’s a while off. Right now we are too skint to save it and she needs the things.

Turquoise I thought that also but if you can start young even 5 a month has time to add up.
You will be very glad of that when they hit 10.and start going on more expansive expensive over night trips and need lap tops for school.

Swifey40

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!

PIP is not means tested so matter how much your DH earns if you are entitled to PIP then you will get it.

It used to go into the family "general money" account for bills etc. But now they are teens it's equally divided and given as their pocket money each week.

You think stuff like this makes no difference to the wealth divide in this country?

Let’s say I’m Child A and someone whose parents could afford to put their child benefit into a nice high interest savings account is Child B.

I wonder how many jobs I’ve applied for and didn’t get because I lacked relevant experience, ended up going to Child B who did have relevant experience because they could afford to do an unpaid internship thanks to their savings?

I wonder how many extra hours I worked in shitty minimum wage jobs trying to earn enough money for a house deposit compared to Child B who already had tens of thousands in the bank?

I wonder how much longer it’s going to take me to pay off my student loans compared to Child B who didn’t have to take the full amount? And because it’s not being deducted from their salary every month they have more disposable income to put aside for their own DC?

and so on and so on… and no amount of shopping at Aldi instead of Tesco or walking instead of driving or getting the bus is going to change it. And that for the most part continues down the generations.

So yes, I absolutely believe child benefit should be means tested and those who are so comfortably off that they can afford to put £140+ a month of government benefits into a savings account have no business claiming it in the first place.

when we used go get it, it went into DDs savings.

@AngeloMysterioso it is means tested 🙄

Those who feel that CB shouldn't go into savings... do you feel the same way about those using it for nice extras like extracurricular clubs, music lessons, holidays etc?

@AngeloMysterioso if there is a higher earner in the household (starting at £50k) then some or all of CB needs to be paid back so in our case we claimed but opted out of getting the money

Goes into the pot with our wages.
though we do save £30 p/m per child so I guess we could say it’s from that.

We are in Ireland where it’s not means tested so we have 140 per child per month.it goes into a savings account and we top it up to 200 and grandparents very kindly add 100 per child per month. They are very very lucky.

I save October,November and December's payment to buy Christmas presents for my DC.

May,June and Julys payment is used as spending money for our summer holiday.

September is used for car insurance.

If nothing comes up on the other months I save it in my own post office account. I've never saved it in my children's account.

Very interesting to read that people have very different view points r.e this.

We both work full time, mainly from home, have no childcare costs as we both juggle our hours/shifts between us to allow us to save on childcare (certainly not judging people who do use their child benefit to help with childcare costs) and I often do work at night when DC is in bed.

My DC doesn't miss out on anything. My DC has been given opportunities to go to various classes/clubs however is not keen on this - might change the savings aspects when this does happen. We often do days out that are cheap or for an occasion because I don't want my DC to expect this all the time, we go swimming weekly that costs a grand total of £1.50.

My DC has mainly hand me down clothes from other family members that have absolutely nothing wrong with them or have been bought in the sale, I'd rather this than buying new every time as I absolutely hate waste and its cost effective. We do however always buy shoes new but certainly not expensive, always from Asda or similar.

In relation to the family pot for food shop we managed to afford food (Aldi and Lidl shopper and certainly nothing special or fancy) before DC came along so it's just continued this way however again this might be a different story if we had to buy new clothes all the time for DC or circumstances change in some way. We also don't smoke or drink, I'm sure there are plenty of people that stick a bottle of wine/beer in with their food shop that comes out the "family pot", no judging at all but it's very much swings and roundabouts.

So as I've tried to portray in this info I do what works best for our family and totally understand everyone's situation is different in various aspects and as things change we will change it accordingly if needed.

**Also someone has said £140 a month? Is this for more than 1 child because we definitely don't get that.

Just goes into general pot but more than that amount is spent on clothes, nappies, wipes, formula and other little things like new dummies, next flow up bottle teats etc

Child benefit is €140 per child per month in Ireland and its not means tested.

@AngeloMysterioso as I said, my DH pays it back when doing his tax return.
It also covers my NI contributions, so that is why I claim it for my daughters.

And as a pp said, anything can change financially for a family, so why wouldn't I claim it and have it as a safety net for my children.
I don't believe for a second if you could endure a safety net of savings for your children, that you wouldn't do so

It just goes into the family pot. Our daughter is still in nappies so you could say it gets spent on nappies, wipes, nappy cream, food and clothes for our child etc.

Nobody will expect you to account for where every penny goes. As long as you are meeting your children's needs and they are fed, clothed, clean, well cared for and loved, nobody will mind where that money goes.

We do save money for our child too so it wouldn't be difficult to say some or all of the CB goes into her savings account if we needed to either.

Save all child benefit into saving a count for college.

It just goes into the general household pot.