Should families get a tax allowance for dependant children

[Clariee45]

Just a thought from another thread about there being no help for the squeezed middle who feel they are hardly better off than those on universal credit. Wouldn’t it just be fairer if those families not entitled to universal credit were given an extra tax allowance equivalent to the adult personal allowance for each child.
Why are adults given a tax allowance that acknowledges the basic costs of needing to eat and have a roof over there head etc and yet parents are expected to provide all this (plus 80% childcare costs) for their children completely out of their taxed income

What about the child free squeezed middle? Paying for everyone else but getting nothing back.

Tax free childcare & the free hours are more of an incentive to keep women in work as they get more tax back overall.

As I said made child benefit universal as it was before.

Tax rebate on uniforms would be welcome.

What about the child free squeezed middle? Paying for everyone else but getting nothing back.

Sure you get less back but were you not educated, you also benefit from infrastructure & transport, hospitals, police etc.

Or paying less tax when they are accessing more services?
With no element of means testing to attempt to direct funding/subsidies to go to those in need?

Not at the rate of 12.5k per year per kid, that would be utterly ridiculous.

It’s not the parents using them, it’s the children and you could say the same of any adult using state services. I totally get the idea that people don’t want to be ‘paying’ parents unless those parents destitute but this is just about acknowledging children as people who need to eat and be housed (just like adults) in the tax people but allowing their allowance to be assumed by their parents as they aren’t able to work themselves

tax system

But everyone gets that. The child free have to pay for everyone’s extras.

Most western countries provide some form of tax credit to parents. UK is pretty unique not to. France for example you get an extra 50% of an adult allowance per child.

I’m a single parent ( work full time) I roughly pay in tax what they give me in UC. I do think it would be a simpler system / remove a lot of people who claim in work benefits if you had a choice between a tax credit/ universal credit.

Because that would mean that the rest of the population are subsidising the lifestyle choices of people wit young children. These parents already get Child Benefit, so it would be particularly egregious for them to have an additional subsidy. It is up to parents to fund their own children, not the job of taxpayers.

Why was the equivalent of child benefit in the past universal then? Why is it universal & often higher in other countries? We have an ageing population & declining birth rates. Taxpayers fund lots of things, investing in kids wouldn't be a bad thing.

The child free had those services as children so why resent the fact current day children now get to go to school etc

Child benefit should never have been means tested.

Exactly. I don’t know why people assume the child free want to subsidise their kids.

@Shumpalumpa there's nuance, it depends how much you earn doesn't it?

Why do people want to pay less and less tax but then complain about a lack of services / benefits / health care / education / welfare etc. Do people really not understand the correlation?

Because you want a lot more than schooling. You want more disposable money just for having kids.

Ah, I thought you went to school too.

Absolutely, would also help people currently on UC, sure many like yourselves would be glad to be free of UC admin and it be bound by its restrictive rules etc

Children do get free education?
Or are you suggesting you deserve an additional tax allowance so that you can send your children to a private school?

Children are society members. Parents fulfil a social function by raising the workers/taxpayers of the future.

Children are not a lifestyle choice, they're not pets.

This attitude is completely dysfunctional.

Yes I did and I don’t mind the fact we pay for any child in this country to go to school. My children are born people and citizens in their own right, not just pets of mine

So are your kids not currently going to school?

I don’t think a personal allowance for each kid is the way to go, as it would be very unfair on those without kids. I do think something like universal child benefit and perhaps upping the amount would be a good idea.