To think the child benefit arrangements are unfair?

[MobLife]

Only just clocked this and I'm still not 100% sure I've got it right because it seems wrong...
So if 2 parents are both earning £49,999 and hence taking in almost £100k household income they can continue to claim full CB

But

2 parents where the household income is way under that (lets say for arguments sake £70k) and one parent is earning the greater proportion (between £50-60k) will either get a much reduced CB amount or potentially nothing at all?

How is that fair??!

I agree 100%.

It's also the same situation with 30 hours funding for nursery, as soon as 1 person tips over 100k you can't claim, but 2 parents could earn 90k each and still get the funding.

Isn't that just like tax though? If one persons earns £60k they'll pay higher rate tax and if they're PAYE they can't share it with spouse to pay less. But the 2 on £49,999 will pay standard rate tax.
I think your understanding is right.

It is unfair and I would be interested in your suggestions on how to make it better ( bearing in mind any administration costs).

I remember there being complaints about the unfairness of this when it first came out.

I suppose the thinking is that two parents working full time and paying the expenses and taxes that go along with that need it more than a family who has a high earner and can afford a parent to SAH or work part time.

It’s ridiculous and indefensible.

Agree that was us. Exh earned £62k I didn't work because dd has asd

It is not fair at all and should be changed.

I appreciate that the set up costs for this would be complete unrealistic, but I would love to see traditionally underpaid workers - teachers, nurses, social workers etc being given a code that overrides this or gives a greater allowance of earnings for their partner before the rules kick in.

How is a salary of £50,000 underpaid??!!

Administration costs are an absolute red herring given the system has been automated for years

Surely organising it on the basis of total household income rather than individual would be fairer?

In Australia some benefits, like childcare subsidies, are based on household income. It’s soooooo much better as it encourages the mindset that childcare is a family expense and it also recognises how hard it is for single parents. Definitely still not perfect though.

Apparently not automated enough given that if you're over the max earnings amount there is not automation in adjusting the CB you receive or stopping it because I've read you have to complete a self assessment tax return and send back?!
Even if you're not self employed which seems mad!

They manage to assess all other benefits on household income. Why would it be so hard to do child benefit the same way?

Cry me a river for people earning £70,000

It's totally unfair & the admin costs (I remember reading somewhere - prob Private Eye) aren't covered by the savings made as it's a unnecessary complication to the tax system.

It was a "back of a fag packet calculation" vote sound bite by the Coalition government. Looks like you're cracking down on the rich but actually you're just penalising SAH parents - usually women & so undermining the principles of the original Child Benefit which the first state benefit to go to the mother (rather than the householder / usually the man).

I'd only have been in credit in a 5-week month after paying for childcare, so I didn't work as it was less stressful for all of us but having to fill in a tax return for DH so they could remove the child benefit so we didn't get fined, whilst 2 parent families with twice our income kept their's made me cross before I'd even tackled the forms. Either all tax & benefits should be calculated on a household basis or none - the current system is unfair & a total mess.

Now it's been in place so long that I doubt it'll go away despite the costs & obvious unfairness😕

Yes it’s totally unfair, I’m a SAHM and dh earns 65k so we don’t qualify but if we both earned 50k we would get it.
I’d change it and make it so you could only claim for the first 3 children.

Yanbu. It's vastly unfair on lone parents.

Yep, this is true. Or you can opt out, but this means that the child doesn't automatically get a NI number assigned and the stay at home parent doesn't get any NI credits for the time they are home and out of work as they would if they were in receipt of Child Benefit.

And the threshold hasn't increased for years! I believe it was set at £50k about 12 years ago and hasn't increased since - if it had kept pace with inflation, like other tax thresholds, it would be over £60k. (Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong!)

I actually benefit from this system and I agree it isn't fair. I assume there must be some cumbersome costs involved with changing over to household income though otherwise the government would certainly have done so as it would save them money if fewer households were eligible.

I was 'forced' into giving up CB years ago.
I was only earning about £500 a month, but my husband was a high earner. I totally get that .

The idea of CB was to ensure that babies and children received money to feed and clothe them as it was ' a woman's job.'

Obviously my husband's salary was available to me at that time but there were many, many women who were , and still are, controlled by their partners so those few pounds were an enormous help as the money could only be claimed by mums.

The notion of CB was borne out of the notion that many women, who were expected to stay at home, did not have access to a man's money. So I believe.

I’m trying to leave a financially abusive relationship. He earns above every threshold. I cannot claim child benefit and now that I’m trying to work I’ll have to pay for childcare despite thinking I’d be entitled to 30 hours. Funny I only seem to learn how much he actually earns when I’m trying to apply for a benefit. Marriage isn’t registered as I stupidly thought it was. then he promised me he would but went back on it so if I ‘divorced’ him I’d be entitled to nothing. I know I’ve been stupid but I was coerced into the whole thing, very naive and deliberately sheltered so here I am. I’m hoping when dc is in full time childcare I can start saving properly and sort my life out.

i can’t believe I said childcare I meant school. Says a lot.

My heart bleeds for the poverty stricken people on £50k plus salaries.