To feel like the government is robbing me via taxes... Child Benefit and single parent income

[oreo2020]

I am a single parent of 2 teenagers, live in London and have a professional job. The last 2 years have been so much harder financially, to a point where I am now doing a vocational training so I can work in the evenings / weekends to top up my income, this is on top of my challenging, long hours, civil service role at Grade 7. As I earn over 50k (but below 60k), I have to do tax returns and pay a big chunk of Child Benefit back.

I've just looked at inflation.. so CB for higher earners was introduced in 2013. The value of £50k then in 2013 is equivalent to £66.6k now, according to Bank of England Inflation Calculator. As a civil servant I barely had any pay increase since. There is £1500 one off pay that's coming for civil servants... when I deduct 40% tax, NI and the child benefit I will have to repay in relation to that, I get £650 worth out of £1500, for fuck's sake.

The government has shut down all attempts so far to increase the threshold or equalize it for single parents. It's just so unfair as I am trying my best to keep my head over the water. AIBU?

Why else would people want to progress their career if it’s not financial reward?

Job satisfaction, intellectual challenge, status, wanting to make a difference. Once I’d reached a certain point money was a secondary consideration and I took a pay cut on one occasion for a more interesting and challenging job.

None of that has any relevance to the unfairness of the taxation system to single parents. It was a constant source of annoyance to me when my son was growing up - and that was when child benefit was universal.

Be careful what you say. The DDad might be dead for all you know.

1 in 20 children will loose a parent or sibling before they are 16.

I do totally agree with this, and whilst 50k seems a huge income to me, I'm aware I'm not in London , I'm in a cheap part of the country so yanbu.

How is irrelevant?
If a couple earn say £30k each they will get CB.
If the op is earning £50k and her ex contributes say £5k per month do you really think she should be getting CB from public funds.

The thresholds for all taxes and rates have reduced by stealth, income tax levels not increased with inflation fir years, same with IHT and property prices
just life

The child benefit system is inherently unfair. You can have two people who each earn £49k and therefore get a joint incone of £99k and they get child benefit.

Alternatively you can have two people where one person earns £51k and the other £12k - joint income of £63k and they don't.

Its not a consistent cut off point and therefore yanbu

This is the reason given by HMRC but they manage to take both parents' work and income into account for TFC (which is worth more than CB) so not a convincing argument in my opinion.

Yes, I do think she should be getting child benefit. I think it should be a universal benefit. Child maintenance is discounted for all other benefits.

This is the reason given by HMRC but they manage to take both parents' work and income into account for TFC (which is worth more than CB) so not a convincing argument in my opinion.

Isn't it similar to CB in that only one of you has to earn over £100k to trigger ineligibility? If both earned £99k they'd get it, but one over £200k wouldn't. It's not a means tested benefit, it relies on the tax system and thus on individuals rather than household income, just like CB. Means testing a household is much more expensive.

YANBU. The application of CB is incredibly unfair on single parents. Rachel Reeves was questioned on this point when she was interviewed on MN a couple of months ago but she admitted that the labour party don't give any more of a shit than the tories do, so I've no hopes that things will be changing any time soon.
On a wider note, we pay SO much tax. I wouldn't complain because I broadly agree with the rich paying in to fund a wider society but I don't feel we're seeing anything for it. Education and health care systems are woefully underfunded, streets are dirty etc. Where does it all go???

I don’t think there’s a single argument to claim it’s fair, it’s absolutely hammering single parents. 2 people on 25k pay thousands less in tax and get child benefit! A couple pay less household expenses each. Personally for the cost of administering the ridiculous cut off I think they should just make in a universal benefit the same as disability benefits.

They do track per household. My dh doesn't claim CB, I do. He's had to pay it back because he earns over £50k.

If you’re earning less than 60k have you taken pension contributions off your total declared for child benefit? The bonus I’d think about sticking in a pension if you can afford it

As pp says, it works just the same I think? You can claim up intill 1 person earns £100k.

That's the OPs point. One person earns over £50k so CB gets paid back. The inequality being pointed out is you could both earn £49k and still get CB with a household income of £98k but as a lone parent on £50k doesn't get it.
The same way a 2 income household could earn £25k each and be eligible for CB and have more take home pay than a household with one income of £50k who has to pay back any CB.

That's without getting into what £50k is in real terms compared to 10 years ago.

I agree and from 1977-2013 it was universal

I'm not sure how my dh paying it back when he doesn't claim it makes by individual and not household. It in my name.

It's not by household - that's pretty much the point of this thread and numerous others there have been making this very point.

@Exasperatednow because it is based on one earner, a household means test calculates the total earnings between you both (and can't easily be done unlike personal tax records). The fact you can claim it and your partner return it is to enable you to earn the NI contributions element of it and/or enable you to access the money directly, but the liability remains with the earner that disqualifies themselves from the payment.

Whilst I agree with an income limit for claiming child benefit, the way the govt implemented this was appalling . It should be based on household income , not single income. Why the threshold hasn’t increased in ten years is beyond me. 50k-60k in 2023 is worth a lot less than it was in 2013.

There are two separate issues here. Should child benefit eligibility be based on household income? Well maybe yes in an ideal world but as several pps have pointed out that would cost lots in administration meaning less money available to pay out in child benefit.

Second issue is whether tax allowances should be increased in line with inflation. Again ideally yes but in the real world we have an aging population to pay for.