child benefit higher tax band - nothing in budget

[tea1tea2]

AIBU to think with all the rising living cost , child benefit higher tax charge shouldbe moved from £50000 to £75000 something? i am not earning that much but DH does .

child benefit should be scrapped entirely and the money put in to subsidising childcare so people can work and quality early years provision to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

my brother and sister in law have both carefully arranged their work patterns and dropped days to keep their salaries just under 50k so their household income is 99k and they get the full whack.

How many children do you want it for? Surely it's just small change to you. £60 a month (I'm guessing) for one child?

Yes yabu

I agree with this.

I went £18k and don’t get child benefit because DH earns over £50. But as a household we earn less than some people bringing in £99k and still getting it.

I agree with you. They should either raise the threshold, which is really out of date now, or base it on household income. The current system is unfair when a household with two people earning 49,500 each can keep it and one person earning 60,000 can’t.

Attitudes like yours are the reason the Tories think low earners are lazy. Your combined household income would be a minimum of £70,000 if you work full time but you think the state should still give you money for the children you chose to have. No household earning that kind of money should rely on state top ups.

I think that it should be a universal benefit. It would help those in financially abusive partnerships with rich men. You don't have to claim the benefit if you don't want to and I'm sure many richer people wouldn't bother.

I think that’s an outdated view.
Based on a 70s view of a man coming out of the factory with his cash weekly wage and drinking it all on the way home, so at least his wife had managed to buy food with the family allowance in her name. Just a common or garden arsehole husband.
An abusive man will claim CB in his name, or make his abused partner just hand it over.

There is an article in dailymail that there is possibility of restoring child benefit for high earners

I'd sooner it were scrapped altogether and the money go into alleviating childcare costs as mentioned above.

I’d also prefer CB to be scrapped altogether. The idea that taxpayers are funding savings accounts for other people’s kids (which is what everyone I know uses CB for, they don’t need it) when they may be struggling with their own bills, that’s mad to me. An extension of CB to even wealthier people is laughable.

The child benefit restriction is, in tax-and-benefit design terms, an abomination.

There are two basic approaches one can take to benefits, universal or means-tested.

It would be perfectly fine to go back the universal arrangement, where everyone gets it. Admin is simple, and it doesn't matter if millionaires get it because they are paying for their own benefits through their taxes, in addition to paying for the benefits of dozens of other people.

It would also be fine to abolish it altogether and pay child-related support to an eligible minority via Universal Credit only. Means-tested benefits are complicated, but Universal Credit already has all the infrastructure to deal with this, so the additional admin overhead would be zero.

Both these alternatives would be simple and fair. What we have is a ridiculous mess which is neither.

I don't understand, if you are not a higher rate tax payer, you can claim it?

I think it was better when every child was entitled to child benefit. Every child deserves to be supported by their government, not just those whose parents can’t afford them alone.

It's right that it's moved, as is a move to increase the higher rate tax amount from £50k to higher (not sure if that's actually being considered), it's been years since these things were introduced and with inflation £50k is not the same today as it was 2, 5, 10+ years ago.

Whilst I understand the unfairness compared to household income, it is much more cost effective to target by personal taxation than assess household income.

If your spouse earns more than 60K they have to pay it all back via their tax return.

So in a couple where either earns more than 60K, you don't get it. (But in a couple where each earns 30K, you do.)

If your spouse earns more than 60K they have to pay it all back via their tax return.

And this enables the non working partner to continue to claim NI contributions if the child is under 12.

Talk that CB thresholds may be changed in the new year

wow, i had no idea! seems wrong.

No I think its fair enough as it is. There has to be a line somewhere.

It's in line with the 40% tax threshold for ease, I think.

But I did expect the threshold to be raised. There were all those rumours, and it's an obvious tactic to appeal to the sort of voter they can't win the next GE without. Throwing a bone to the middle etc.

There’s talk of them raising it in January.

The one rule I would like to see around child benefit that it not getting it starts on household income

Seems bonkers to me that a single parent earning 60k can’t have it. But a couple each earning 45k can.

I agree people on £50k plus don’t need child benefit. But it should be fair across households. The division is ridiculous. Of
course higher earners don’t need as much help as low income families.

I think the £50k limit is fine and that it should be based on a household income of £50k and not individual earnings.

i would rather any spare money go to those in poverty and not those earning over £50k!

It should be scrapped and the money used to fund childcare (allowing women to work and contribute back to the state). It shouldn’t be paid to everyone, so they can use it to create a savings account for their child, or spend it on household bills. Plenty of people are struggling and could use help for bills or to build up savings, it shouldn’t be that the state helps only those with kids do those things.

that's true if the higher earner shares finances equally with the lower earner, but as we see all the time on mumsnet that sometimes isn't the case.