To feel annoyed about child benefit threshold?

[Mirenda]

I earn not far over the threshold to claim child benefit so am not going to put in any claim.

Maybe it seems completely unreasonable to many but given the large amount I pay in tax and NI every year, I feel annoyed that we get nothing back for this, especially with costs of absolutely everything going up.

If we could claim it, we would use it to fund baby related groceries or the heating bill in winter, both of which can be quite expensive.

I don't understand why the threshold can't be more towards 100k mark like the childcare costs threshold as once you're into six figure salaries that's a different ball game (although those people also pay hefty amounts of tax so why shouldn't they see something for it too?)

I expect to be slated for daring to question any of this as someone who earns a comfortable amount but when you've put into the system over the years, it would be nice to get more back when it's for your child.

I have a very wealthy elderly relative who still received the government's pensioner cost of living payment last year regardless of her massive income. They didn't means test that but they will set limits and thresholds for benefits for children rather than make it more universal.

Does not work like that, limit applies if either earns more than 50k. So yes dp could claim it but op still repays via a tax return.

From an economics pov that doesn’t stack up. Encouraging people to have a SAHP leads to lower tax receipts for the government. And lower human capital. Making the choice to be a sahp then getting subsidised isn’t fair to those who work and pay the taxes to pay for it.

The CB threshold is grossly unfair to single parents, however.

I was just thinking the same

It was the libdems actually who wanted it!

I get it OP.
My DH earns 60k, so no child benefit for us. But I am a SAHM because we can't afford childcare for me to go back to work, so that 60k is all we have as a household (plus deducting NI, tax, student loan, pension, and all of my visa fees because I am an immigrant). DH has only been working for 5 years as he got his MEng and a PhD on a minimal stipend while I worked for a whopping 22k, so it's not like we have any savings or assets built up. Rent is extortionate and we live in an expensive area because that is where DH's work is.
Child benefit would help our children massively, but the system doesn't consider any of those things. We just fell through the net.

That’s not how it works, they still wouldn’t be eligible if the partner claimed.

You'd think nobody else actually paid any tax, wouldn't you.

Well off people moaning is sickening.

I guess perplexed is the word here, I don’t think anything I’ve said there is angry and aggressive, I’d hate for you to experience real anger and aggression if you think that’s what it is.

I definitely never said you said our DC don’t deserve to exist, I was merely explaining that this is their right in order to go on growing and ultimately contribute to our civility, it wasn’t a direct response in that part of my comment. I definitely thought about my answer, and it definitely required the use of my brain, that i’m certain of.

However I don’t agree that everyone deserves help during a cost of living crisis, especially a family earning 85k PA.

However, I’m apparently not thinking or using my brain very well if I’m not in agreement which is the part that perplexed me or is it not just another way of MC/UC people’s way of putting WC in their place.. I think it’s probably the latter.

Well I earn well under the threshold, but DP, whose children they are not, earns over, so I don't get any.

ExH lives with a woman who has children, so his maintenance is cut because of her children.

I feel like I get screwed front and back.

Luckily DP isn't an arse, but it does mean that my monthly income has decreased significantly.

I agree, but unfortunately we've turned into a very selfish and short term society only looking for what we're entitled to and expecting "someone else" to pay.

People on mumsnet pitching average people against each other and making everything a race to the bottom is what sickens me.

Well I did self-declare it as a stupid argument. Where does the line get drawn between state and private responsibility? Child benefit is one of those funny ones - try withdrawing it and the optics are abysmal but I'm pretty sure that funding could do a lot more good than it does for the 'average or better' families it supports if it was directed elsewhere.

Obvs there is benefit in the kids existing - which is why they get funded through their education, we fund peoples maternity and paternity leaves, etc etc. But they're also our biggest climate change driver so you could say if you have more than 2 you're doing a lot of harm!

(This is intended with HUGE pinch of salt - just saying there's lots of ways to look at things - and these are silly arguments)

Everyone pays tax into the system - albeit at different rates and everyone takes out of it albeit at different rates at different times.

I claimed benefits as a young single parent and then got a job earning more than you and worked out I had been a net contributor - having paid in more than I had taken out - and then I got a rare form of cancer and now the cost of my treatment plus the fact I can no longer work full time and am nearing retirement means I am again in the net receiver bracket and always will be.

You are not paying in for other people you are paying in so you have the safety nets - you have cover from Police Fire and Ambulance and the NHS even if you at this point in your life have not used them much, you live in a literate nation as a result of education, stretching the point but you have the protection of the foreign embassies if you get in trouble abroad (I had to use the British Embassy in Prague once and it was worth all the tax i have ever paid) and the armed forces - you have roads, street lights, security at airports - my god the list goes on forever - as well as the benefits system if the world comes along and gives you a great big smack in the face you were not expecting.

If you feel that you have been a net contributor then you have had a very lucky life so far.

So with these views - in general i find these type of posts and many of the comments incredibly frustrating however i agree the one income household v the two income household rule for child benefit is frankly odd.

I think this is bollocks personally.

We have a system that is so heavily subsidised by benefits and regulated that it makes housing, childcare etc more expensive than it should be. Then when people struggle to afford it on their entirely market led wages they are shouted at for being ‘grabby’ and ‘entitled’.

I’m in the same boat @Mirenda and after searching these boards I found the advice on pensions.
I’ve worked out how much I need to put into my pension after annual charity donations thereby reducing my taxable income to £50k.

I know I am fortunate to have a well paying job, but the rules don’t seem equitable and the threshold has not been reviewed in a number of years leading to it being too low now.

You can't get out what you put in, that's a non starter of a way to think about it. Well you can but in completely non measurable ways. I do think it's really odd and unhelpful how it is on single salaries instead of household income. But I also think there are so many unmet needs when it comes to what the state should pay for and can't, that higher earners' child benefit doesn't really cut it as a worthy cause tbh.

@Mirenda

Very annoying isn't it, my ex earned £65k (so over even after pension) I was at home as dd has autism and couldn't do childcare, later I've worked pt ( i still have to support her at university). I think it should be based on family wage of £80k or similar

Somebody will always complain about the rules. If you are unemployed, the savings thresholds haven't changed in forever! It's tough that there have to be rules. But it's hard to get too bothered about people with relatively high incomes not getting child benefit. By your argument (I pay alot of tax so I should get something back) I'm owed a bloody fortune back - I pay a lot of tax, and I'm paying for the nursery / school your children go to. What's fair about that then?

DH and myself always had a jiggle about where we could so that we didn't lose the entitlement. And we were far better off as two people just under the threshold than a single high earner. The rule does seem odd and unfair to single parent families.

But when were no longer entitled to it I couldn't be angry, we never needed the money and I can't say I noticed the £20 a week that was missing. I'd rather have the £20k ISA limit raised which has been in place since 2017.

This applies to people with children, too. It applies to all of us. We all benefit from a functioning state.

YANBU

The threshold hadn’t gone up for around 10 years, and in that time inflation has gone wild.

The other desperately unfair thing is that it goes on one person’s income, rather than the household income. So you can have two earners just under the threshold getting full CB, but one person earning just over it doesn’t get anything. Really unfair and should change to household income - single parents have enough additional burden!

It never should have been means tested. Either keep it for everyone or scrap it entirely and add a bit to universal credit.

Necessities, eh.

If you're not far over the threshold and really want it why not whack a bit more in your pension? You'll get the 40% relief and then the benefit.

This.

First time ever we are getting close to first threshold and DH is doing this - though DD1 nearing 18 anyway and hopefully off to Uni so it tailing off anyway though still very useful amount to spend on the kids - bus passes into college books etc.

I do agree with PP that real unfair bit is it not based on household income so single parents who are high earners are disadvantaged.

This. My husband claims it. I earn over 60k. I have to return the money we got for last year as I changed jobs midway which pushes me over the limit.