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??!

and that's before you factor in more than a decade of wage stagnation

Child benefit is a universal benefit that's been slightly bodged not to be. Other means-tested benefits are calculated only after a huge amount of data has been collected.

You answer is sort of right: if we don't want to leave child benefit the way it was, an unconditional universal benefit, then we should abolish it, and just give people claiming Universal Credit an increase so they are no worse off.

I have no problem with child benefit being universal, or alternatively with it being abolished for everyone who isn't on Universal Credit, but the current system is a clumsy bodge that never should have existed.

Universal benefits are supposed to require next to no admin, means-tested benefits require a huge amount of data collection, paying child benefit (only) as part of a UC claim would not really add any more complexity.

Well, tbh, it's very unfair that the Government (ie taxpayers) just hand out money to people who have children - why are their lifestyle choices subsidised by everyone else?

Surely this is eligible for all benefits? why are pensioners who haven't saved enough entitled to help? why are people why haven't paid much NI entitled to healthcare or social care?

Same. DH earns just above 60k so has to pay it back but I don’t want to give it up, as a SAHM who doesn’t have access to his money.

@silvertailedcat why on earth don't you have access?

The issue is that 1 person earning this much and supporting a family, the whole family loses the money, where 2 people earning 49k keeps it

Like others have said, other benefits are based on family income, why not this one

Something like France for example, where the household’s income is used for taxes/benefits, taking into account DC. Very simple to implement and has been working well over there for decades.

It would be far better if first 2 children for each woman got £20 each but no more for subsequent children. Far less bureaucracy cheaper to administer.

I get a set amount transferred to me each month. We had separate accounts for years before having the DC and it’s just continued. I know many others in the same situation. The CB makes a difference.

You could qualify though, if your DH earns £65k gross - the calculation is made on his taxable earnings which I would assume are less. If he paid £15k into his pension via salary sacrifice then you would still be able to keep all of your child benefit, and if paid lets say £10k you would keep half the CB.

Yes you are substituting income now for pension but if he is earning over £50k then 43.25% over that is going on tax and NI anyway, so instead of losing ~£6500 in taxes and no CB (~£1130 first child £750 others) you would put the entire £15k into your future and keep your CB.

Not only is it unfair, it’s immoral and goes against the reason CB was ever introduced. Eleanor Rathbone MP could see that there could be vast wealth going into a household, but that a Mother and Children may be utterly impoverished in that same house. CB was introduced with NO means testing to ensure that ££ got to the Mother. When they introduced the new rules I wrote to the Chancellor to express my horror. To explain that women and children could be horrifically impacted by this. I got a stock answer. It wasn’t even relevant.
so now, a woman whose ‘successful’ husband does not ‘allow’ her to work gets no money at all in her own right for Terri her children. And what about the NI credits too?
it’s awful.

@silvertailedcat I just think it's wrong for money not to be shared equally.

Ireland has £140 a month per dc & no means testing I believe.

Yanbu. I'm a single parent on £65k, I get no CB. A couple earning £49k each get to keep it though...

It means people are effectively paying 70% tax between £50k -£60k if they have kids.

I'm a parent. I've not been handed any tax free money. Where do I sign up for that please?

The point about taxing per household not per adult would benefit single people without children also btw.

Totally agree with you. And yer apparently Truss is keen to help proper families (I guess she means two parents ones) who are of course the bedrock of society 🙄

Yes and they've barely moved in the last decade.

Totally agree with you. And yer apparently Truss is keen to help proper families (I guess she means two parents ones) who are of course the bedrock of society 🙄

Yep. She'll be all over screwing single parents over even more.

Her economic policies are completely insane, projected to result in interest rates of 7-10%!

It is very unfair, I remember when it was bought it in, I continued to claim for national insurance credit as was sahm at the time but had to pay it back which was hard. Also remember they wrote to DH , as higher rate tax payer to ask if if his wife wanted to continue to claim it! I was outraged!
A friend of mine and her DH both earnt just under 50k and could still qualify for it , but as a sahm i didnt as DH earnt 60k. Their net family income was much higher than ours. Its outrageous but that's the tories for you. It was just a nice headline for them-taking away child benefit from richest 10% or some such propganda nonsense ( no way were we in richest 10% !!) Thing is unlike pensioners we weren't a big enough voting cohort to care about.

This with bells on!

I work my arse off as a single parent and not only do I have less income than two people who between them earn the same as me because of their personal allowances, I also don't qualify for child benefit but two people earning what I do equally between them would. It's a shite system.

Child benefit is for the children, not the parents, so in my view all parents should receive it irrespective of earnings to aid with the cost of feeding, clothing etc their kids

But it applies to single mums like me who have to work, don’t get child benefit and don’t have the advantage of a parent at home to do childcare (so we have to pay for that too). Given how few absent parents pay maintenance us single mums need it more than anyone but don’t get it.

equally our household income is taxed higher than if it was earned by two people. Massively unfair system.

I holland rather than child benefit you get a not dissimilar tax break for each child. Works effectively and means that it doesn't get that dreaded benefit label. I think its tapered but weren't close to that...

As unpopular as the notion is, we do need an ongoing population and kids hopefully become working adults but they are expensive so it is needed...