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!

Pardon? It's not a scam.

The govt have set the rules to encourage people to pay into their pensions. They want people to save for their retirement. And I'm paying in the standard 5%, some people pay in much more.

I'd be far more annoyed with the country for allowing your deadbeat ex to get away with not paying for his children. CMS should be far less easy to get around and there should be huge sanctions for evading it. The only reason I can think of as to why this doesn't happen is that MPs are among the worst offenders for leaving their wives??? Or maybe it just seems that way from the headlines.

Anyway the state should not be supporting pretty well off people so that their partners can get away with not paying anything. It's bloody absurd. Whatever, well done on your promotion OP.

@zax do you understand the concept of salary sacrifice?! Seems not…basically anything you sacrifice from your salary before the deduction of tax reduces the overall amount that you earn. Pension, cycle to work, car leasing, childcare vouchers, extra annual leave, medical insurance…

This is what I don't understand. DH just tipped £50k and got a letter saying do a tax return and pay back cb. When he did it literally only asked for gross income so how would they know how much you pay into your pension? There was nowhere to put that.

@adulthumanfemalemum

This is what I don't understand. DH just tipped £50k and got a letter saying do a tax return and pay back cb. When he did it literally only asked for gross income so how would they know how much you pay into your pension? There was nowhere to put that.

There's definitely a section to input all pension contributions (you input gross).

Not the point of the thread I know, but I'm a lone parent and we'd be living very well if I earned £50k. It's hardly poverty wages. It's more than double what I'm raising my two children on.

I agree that the child benefit cap should be based on household income though, but I'm struggling to feel sympathetic about the thought of you struggling to get by on your £50k

I agree. This was pointed out to the Government when the changes were proposed, but they essentially just shrugged and said too bad. It is especially galling when household income is used to calculate other benefits without difficulty, but for this one, it is one person's salary that tips you over the edge so a lone parent can be significantly worse off than a couple earning nearly twice as much between them. Very, very unfair, but because it happens at a relatively higher rate of earning, nobody cares.

I think the OP has already received some good advice about deducting pension contributions. I also wanted to highlight that salary sacrifice schemes provided by your employer can also be deducted to reduce the adjusted net income. It’s been a few years but we used to both take the max childcare vouchers of £243 each per month and we were able to deduct the annual value of this from our gross pay. Similarly, my husbands work did a bike to work scheme that was also deductible. This worked for a while to bring our income under the threshold for both the CB tax charge and higher rate tax .

We fully opted out of CB about 5 years ago as our income grew. I’m shocked but not surprised that the threshold for CB tax charge has stayed the same in 10 years. Ditto the anomaly of couples earning nearly £100k being still eligible when single earner households aren’t. The mind boggles.

Hello, in the same exact same position as you.

I have had to pay back the last two years. When you do your return, it’s for the previous tax year. You use the P60 from April 2022.

I have found that once my union contributions are taken out I don’t have to pay back as much as it says.

£35 this time round.

"To take me just below the threshold". Coincidence I guess. 🤔

Really? 1 person earning x let's say 50k is worse off that 2 people earning 25k each because of tax brackets. In fact single earner is over £350 worse off! They are also often worse off that they need wrap around care for the child whereas 2 parents can often juggle better and rotate hours, pick ups/ drop off and holiday time for the kids. Mumsnet seems to be obsessed with supposed high earners. 50k down south barely touches the sides.

The total cost of living for that extra person in the household is presumably more than £350 per month.

You are bloomin lucky to be on such a high salary. Although retired now, when both my husband and myself were working, our joint wages didn't come to anywhere near that amount. No children, so no child benefits, no free prescriptions or dental treatment and whatever else you can claim for. Always had to pay full price for everything , never got any help at all. We lived a simple life but still went without holidays, new cars etc as we could'nt afford them. What we would have given for £52k

Just to mention some advice I was given by my accountant years ago, dh is a higher rate earner, and we have to pay the full amount of CB back every year, but we were told it was better to claim it and then pay it back, than to stop taking the CB payments as apparently this could be to either ours or DC's detriment later on - can't remember which and not entirely sure why, but maybe something to check? So we still just take it and then pay it back.

50k? And you lot are striking for more money? Blimey....

I can’t bear the system either now they penalise single families if they manage to earn over the threshold and it’s a joke that the threshold hasn’t been reviewed in line with inflation.
I had to pay some back last year and it was minimal. What was frustrating was it wasn’t actual earnings, my company car inflates my gross salary by £7k, so I don’t earn the money and pay about £200 tax a month on the car - it’s not a benefit but I can’t get rid of it without changing jobs. So I get hammered by hmrc. And then they decided to drastically cut my tax code based on what they’ve projected I’ll earn in the next 3 month. I got taxed an extra £300 based on them projecting I will earn 15k in 3 months and I won’t even earn close: managed to get the code back up again but they wouldn’t refund the extra tax unless i went through a hardship appeal so I’ve got to wait for it to naturally come back

Most teachers don't earn anywhere near £50k and poor pay progression is one of the issues. If you compare the salaries of different graduate professions 5/10/20 years in, teachers will lag behind considerably.

Plus there's also the other issues that, while teachers can't overtly strike over, are also part of the problem (underfunded schools, unreasonable workload, lots of changes that don't improve education).

I’ve heard this too

You really can‘t compare today‘s £50k salary to your salary 30+ years ago. You didn‘t pay £4k a year on Utilities, £2.5k in Council tax and maybe £1k pm per child on childcare. Your first house most likely cost less than half of the OP‘s annual income.
You didn‘t have £50k of student loans, in fact you had free education.

I think this applies to the whole country not just the south east

A sahp , or one working with an income below the threshold, can continue to accrue ni credits until child is 13 and child is automatically allocated an ni number. You can register for cb and opt out of receiving payments at any point.

www.gov.uk/child-benefit/what-youll-get

Once you are over £50k work out what pension you gave left to offset and start making a monthly contribution you will get 40% relief plus your child benefit

I am in the exact same position ..job / responibility and recent promotion taking me over 50k then exam marking to account for. Also a single parent with no CMA payments. I think with the pension it is ok for this year but best to double check.

I’m tipped over the threshold due to a company car. It’s annoying as the car is a necessity to do my job so not only does the tax man take £400 a month for it I’ve now lost my measly child benefit too

We’re in a similar position struggling to pay mortgage and bills I am on a low income. With disabled daughter but well not eligible as my partner earns too much, but if we both earned under 50k and had the same household income we could claim. Feels shit we’re taxed as individuals but benefits and students loans are based on household income.

You can have a child benefit claim without receiving the money - you should do this as you’re still credits with contributions for your state pension, so it’s worth looking into further even though it might be a chew on.