To be pissed off about paying back child benefit

[pinotnow]

I am in a sector that was awarded a pay rise this year - though our union is fighting for a higher one. The rise was from September but our school (yes, it's teaching) didn't pay it until November when we got months at once. HR always send us a pay statement at this time of year and I have just opened mine and seen I am now on approx £52k (been teaching 18 years and am head of a core subject in a large secondary school). I understand I now have to pay back some of my child benefit. This is a pisser as things are pretty tight and I'm a lone parent who gets no CM (ex is a total waste of space - I've gone through CMS). Also, I wasn't expecting it this year (I was on £49k last year and now I'm worried I've missed some sort of deadline for paying it back as technically I've been on this for 5-6 months, but only just realised.

I really haven't got the head space for this now and a quick Google has just brought confusion. As soon as you move forwards a bit in this shithole country you move backwards it seems. Any advice would be great!

However, the CB income threshold has been frozen since it was introduced ten years ago (by a Labour government)

In 2013?

Correct. The threshold has not been increased in 10 years!

@TreePorcupine It was introduced by the Conservatives

Interesting but irrelevant. Every income-tax payer's tax goes into a pot used to (partly) fund benefits and public services. Anyone paying income tax can rightly say that some of the money they pay is used to fund child benefit payments such as those claimed by the entitled OP.

That’s because the taxable pay figure on your P60 has already taken that into account.

She might be better off than some, but isn't it just objectively unfair that the system favours two-income households? Are the people with a joint income £90K still taking child benefits not the people you should be aiming your ire at?

I'm not arguing for the current system. I'm pointing out that OP is an entitled whiner for describing the UK as a 'shithole country' because well-paid people like her find their state benefits, funded in part by lower earners, tapering off.

I know it's not a now issue as you have concluded you are still eligible, but if you end up in a situation where you would owe some of the money back, maybe you'd be better off saving the child benefit (rather than not claiming it at all, as you'd be in the same place income wise by saving it) so that when you do pay it back you have the cash there and whatever is leftover forms an emergency fund/reduces the proportion of it you have to save the next year? Would seem a better use of cash than not claiming it at all?

I read it as she's generally fed up with the state of the country - teacher strikes etc. I know how hard teachers have to work to get promoted, so I can kind if understand her being disappointed that she's got a pay rise only to lose it all again.

She hasn't 'lost it all again'. She receives child benefit but at a tapering rate. And if teachers are whining it's a 'shithole' country because teachers are on strike ... isn't there something they could do to solve that?

But in the case of a SAHP in likelihood the one working would earn over the threshold if that's the issue regardless of what the other one earns if they were back at work. As it's a decision people make they shouldn't be treated the same as single parents who are running a household on one wage for reasons largely out of their control, no.

Your P60 will tell you as it deducts pension so you will need to wait to find out conclusively but can do some rough maths.
There are ways to bring it down so you fall back under the threshold. Do you have a cycle to work bike scheme? (You don't actually ever have to cycle to work!) Or increase your pension contributions so you fall under it.

It catches a lot of families out as when it was brought in salaries (and costs) were lower, the threshold has never changed so it now effects way more people. The level does need examining given the level of interest/cost of living.

There were rumours they were examining it but it was under Truss so went out the window. It does become prohibitive and research suggests some decline career progressions because of it as you have to be paid well over the rate for it not to cause a impact.

It does become prohibitive and research suggests some decline career progressions because of it as you have to be paid well over the rate for it not to cause a impact.

Yes, there are certainly some people who make choices to work less or not go for a new role because of the child benefit withdrawal. There's a bottleneck for people earning 50-60k, particularly if they have dependent DC, and tax bottlenecks aren't a good thing in general. There's always going to be some issues at the point where people move threshold, that's inevitable, but child benefit entitlement exacerbates this one.

It isn't bonkers at all. Loads of countries offer tax breaks for families with children, especially when they have declining birthrates like the UK.

That's not quite what I meant! However, I can see you're not very sympathetic to teachers! Fair enough. Your opinion.

The house prices have gone through the roof in our area due to it being a popular second home area with Londoners. We are lucky to have our home already but those growing up here now (going into average wage jobs) have no chance. The government can deal with that one instantly by putting a limit on the number of second homes allowed in any town. Thats another issue to add to their list!

Of course YANBU

You’re a single parent, you’re having to run a tight ship all on your own. And just when you thought your were going to get a little bit extra it’s snatched back.

Please ignore anyone whose post starts with or includes “my partner”/ “husband”. They have no idea what it is to have it all on your own shoulders

I wouldn't worry about it too much either way, OP. If the child benefit office could be bothered to get that money back at all (which I doubt), they'll give you pleanty of time, and would probably agree for you to pay in installments if you phone them up and let them know you're struggling to repay. It's just not worth their time trying to get small amounts of money back from people.

Threshold does need to go up, I agree.

Also, I think you’ll be able to pay it back in the next year’s taxes if there’s anything to pay

Also post with the word 'entitled', which is a favourite mumsnet word for anyone who has a moan about anything!

I thought it would go up in the Truss budget. There were rumours at the time and it seemed like a policy that would play well with a group the Tories need to persuade.

@Dobby123456 HMRC will be in contact with the OP if she doesn’t declare it via self assessment after the current tax year. I know, because it happened to me and I was only just over. Frustrating as I could just have put a bit extra in my pension and it was my health insurance (taxable benefit) which took me over. I upped my pension payments after that.

Does the OP fill in self-assessment, though? I didn't inform them when I had a payrise that took me over the threshold. When I confessed, the rather bored woman at the end of the phone just said 'So, do you want to stop claiming?' I said 'yes' and she hung up. My payments stopped and I never heard from them again.

@Dobby123456 I didn’t fill in a self assessment at that time but HMRC contacted me and told me that I had to complete one. They were very formal on the phone and mentioned interest and fines - which they waived when I agreed to complete a self-assessment.

Maybe I was just lucky. Or maybe because I said I just wanted to stop claiming altogether, rather than claim and then have to pay most of it back at the end of the tax year, they just let it go.

However, faff as it was, your experience shows the OP doesn't need to worry too much. If she cooperates they'll waive the fines/interest.