To have spent 12 years of child benefit?

[FullMoomin]

Having a panic attack.
I've just calculated that over the past 12 years of spending child benefit every month I've spent over £20,000!!!!!
I should have saved this money for DC!
If I had saved it, I could give it to them.
Turns out all my friends have been quietly saving theirs and now have a nice big monet pot to give their DC when they turn 18!
Now I feel horrifically guilty that my DC wo t get that, when all their friends will.
Oh help, really panicking.
I will never, ever be in the financial situation to pay £16,000 back to them.
The money goes in to my account each month and first it got spent on nappies, food, supplementing my reduced income, then when they went to school it got used for school uniform, new shoes, clubs, food, etc.
Suddenly 12 years has crept up on me and I haven't saved a penny of it.
Only 4 years of CHB to go now and then it stops!! I feel like I've seriously failed my DC.

You need less judgemental friends, OP.

Perhaps it should be. Why are we awarding benefits to people who don't need them?

Are there any doctor/nurse bandings in the NHS under £30k per year for full time.

I thought that kind of wage was for new recruits or support staff?

@Badbadbunny No government has ever "encouraged" parents to save the child benefit.

The government encourage saving while on universal credit hence there is a very generous saving scheme open only to those receiving universal credit, the threshold being a lot lower than that for child benefit.

As someone who wouldn't be eligible for child benefit (we'd just have to pay it all back in tax), it's slightly disconcerting to know that people are using it to fund trust funds, instead of buying essentials for children. It suggests they don't need benefits anymore than higher earners.

If on a higher salary then they obviously don't need it. But if someone doesn't earn a high salary but is still able to save , then there's nothing wrong with saving it. There are people who get disability payments, like nearly £500 a week , and some less than that , who save some/most of their disability money. Do you recommend they don't get those payments either?

Yeah, this is it exactly.

Even if we were to look only at basic living costs, two families might have exactly the same income and size but one of them choose a house with a spare room and the other one not, for example. This is why all the stuff about who needs what is primarily hot air.

Your friends are idiots. And I wonder if some of them come from a household where joint income is way over £50k, rather than a single higher earner who earns over 50k and a SAHP or low earner, whose household would not be entitled to ANY child benefit, or greatly reduced by the tax charge

it’s nuts to me that 2 people on 49k, so household income of 98k, are entitled to full child benefit while another couple with 50k household income are not.

No wonder in some families they can afford to save the child benefit.

There is nothing wrong with encouraging people to save for their children's future. The government also tried this before with the child trust fund.

Child benefit is to help you with the cost of having a child. You used it correctly and needed it that. If your friends could save it because they actually didn’t need it then bully for them. Everyone’s circumstances are different

maybe based on what your friends have managed to do it’s time CB was means tested. Then it goes to those who need it

It's been means tested since 2013, albeit stupidly.

It is means tested.

No government has ever "encouraged" parents to save the child benefit.

They do, or they certainly did when I applied for it. I got a leaflet with my CB letter recommending saving it for the childs future. This was in 2017.

This has already been answered.

This has already been answered.

No idea what you’re talking about, I’m replying to a post directly to me. If you want
to contribute feel free but nothing about my comment is incorrect.

Saving something isn't the same as routinely saving it all.

If you were in a position to save it ? Then you shouldn’t have been claiming .
it !

I knew several eighteen year olds who got lump sums. They all blew it, cars, nights out holidays. It really didn't help them in the long run. I have saved for my children but they won't be getting it at 18, or 21 or 25! They will get it when they need it and will use it for a something worthwhile.

I thought this was just common knowledge? If not, then all this should surely be required curriculum in schools? I am not originally from the UK, so not familiar with the schooling system here

@Sehenswürdigkeiten Saving something isn't the same as routinely saving it all.

If it is okay to save some then it’s okay to save it all. What’s your cut off in terms of what is acceptable then?

@lunepremiere79 definitely not common knowledge at all.

That’s the case for other things, ie state pension. Child benefit is for everyone under a certain earnings threshold and is to benefit the child, be it then or in the future. There is no guidance and if a parent can save for a child, it’s encouraged.

the only people doing something wrong with it are those whose kids go without and they spend it on themselves.

child benefit is not a benefit only for those in poverty who can’t afford to feed or clothe their kids, it’s a benefit for most families and can be spent to benefit the kids either now or in the future as the parent decides.

if you don’t like it, as you clearly don’t, then email your mp or start a petition saying you think it should be under the free school meal criteria.

My best friend got a lump sum at 18, think his was around 12k. He had the lot of it spent within 2 years and he's regretted it ever since. Mostly on drugs and alcohol, holidays, festivals, used to buy everyone's drinks every night out. His family were absolutely devastated.

I also think it's a benefit and if you don't need it and can afford to be saving it up then you shouldn't have it at all.

@Badbadbunny who said anything Aboyne being a doctor/nurse? There are thousands of clinical and non clinical jobs within the NHS that isn't 'doctor' or 'nurse'.

This has been answered several times up thread.

I'm interested in what people define as affording to save. Obviously people who have saved it can at least arguably afford it, notwithstanding the concerns some posters have raised about kids going without. What about those who could afford to save it but spend it on the DC anyway?