There’s NO point earning over £50k?!

[ThisReallyDoesntAddUp]

Because of the £50k child benefit limit and 40% tax rate!

So I earn £78,000 pro rata overall now with my job following a mid year pay rise. This includes bonus and car allowance. I work 4 days a week (80% equivalent) which brings the overall pay this year down to just shy of £50k with a £9.6k bonus.

Out of the £9.6K bonus due in March, I’ve worked out 40% will go to the taxman, over £2K will need paying back for child benefit as I’m now over the £50k threshold, and a further £800ish will go towards my student loan. Deductions of just under £6k!!! This means I’ll only take home 30% of my bonus?!

I’m now on mat leave for baby number 3. AIBU to make sure when I go back I remain under the £50k mark by reducing hours even further?! I’d then have less to pay in childcare mitigating the difference in the pay I’d receive working an extra day each week.

Its an absolute joke, I was hoping to go back to work after my last baby and push on hard with my career but what is the actual point!! I may as well work less hours, keep the child benefit and pay less in childcare!

The point is you won't have young children forever and this in an investment in your future.

If you want to work less for now, do that, you don't need to find someone to blame.

You’ve not read my comment properly

YANBU, OP.

Yes same, my childrens nursery is going up to £65 a day and it honestly makes more sense to send them in less by dropping to 3 days, as it’s the 4th day a week costing us the most once the 30 free hours have been used up. Plus what I’ve outlined in my OP! We may as well work less and have more time with the kids!

I was being sarcastic.

It clearly isn’t the done thing to achieve anything other than absolute standard. I’m so done with the ‘oh it’s alright for you’ brigade.

For me, the issue with Child Benefit is that it goes down if only one parent earns over £50k. With overtime, I will earn just over that threshold. I’m a single parent. However if I had a partner we could each earn £49,999 without having to pay back a penny.

I am theoretically on decent money. In reality it does not stretch far.

Wait until you’re in the 100-125k band.

It is demotivating around the thresholds.

There's not zero point, as there are things you can do, but it's a truly fuckwitted system.

That said, don't make any big decisions yet because the Budget is this week and there's been a lot of talk about Hunt addressing the 50-60k trap. It's possible the situation might be improved soon. It's become a much more live issue lately, and Martin Lewis has hassled him about it.

And plenty of folk are idle and claiming benefits. What’s your point?

People on higher incomes are allowed to post too. It was obvious what the thread was about, so why bother clicking on it if it people with a higher income are going to make you be unpleasant.

Similar story here.

50K barely covers bills and mortgage. 3 small DC and childcare costs leaves almost nothing.

I’ve worked hard all my life and currently get £12k a year. I’ll swap for your £70k+ if you like.
Or even the £50k, actually. 👍🏻

People being disincentivised to work more, which happens all across the income spectrum in our stupid system, does indeed make our public services crapper. Yes. This is why we need to fix that system, instead of people pretending that bleating about the undeserving rich/poor/middle income not doing what you want is going to achieve anything other than making them tell you to wind your neck in. Bottlenecks like the one OP is in are bad for all of us. This would be equally true if she were deterred from work due to the loss of carers allowance, 30 free nursery hours at 100k, FSM or any number of other examples.

I earn less than you but yeah it feels like there is little point earning more as costs of working go up ( commuting/ childcare) and then tax / loss of benefits.

It’s shortsighted to stay under £50k. If you don’t keep going on your career, you will be put on the mummy track and be passed over for promotions, no considered for further raises. They will see you like a plodding draft horse and think you’ve decided you are not interested in your career but in babies. This is the usual sexism and misogyny.

Just push through. Once you get over £70k, it won’t matter so much that you have lost child benefit.

I guess some of us, despite being intelligent & hard working, are just too 'mediocre' to ever reach the lofty heights of such earnings.

I know I never have!

Well you could...

Get a better paid job

Have less children

Move to a cheaper area

Live in a smaller house

These are all things those on lower incomes have to do, why don't those on higher believe they might also need to cut their cloth? Clearly you spend too much compared to what you earn. I don't overly understand how you're struggling but I accept that you think you are.

I disagree. I earn £50k. DH earns £100k. His take home is way more than mine. And also we’re both incredibly fortunate to earn what we do.

Some articles on the issue the Chancellor faces

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/personal-tax/pressure-mounts-on-chancellor-hunt-to-scrap-the-hicbc

https://www.ft.com/content/08f678d7-1ac2-4f9d-86c9-3da040ca4107

The Budget will be very interesting. I've noticed this issue coming up a lot on MN lately.

Agree the issue is much worse for single parents (unless getting a big amount of child maintenance)

Lots of stupid comments.

~£60k is not insanely high earning or privileged in the current economy, if you are the main earner with multiple children.

Somehow on mumsnet main earners who earn ~£60k seem to get a ton of judgement, in the way a couple where each person earns £30-35k never would🙄It’s the same thing. Actually worse off because of the loss of child benefit.

Yep benefit claimants are always told you shouldn't have children you can't afford. 👍

I dont earn anywhere near 50k but i still find paying my tax and national insurance a bit of a disincentive to taking additional hours on - it doesnt always seem with the hassle of organising childcare etc to get just shy of £8. So it doesnt surprise me people on the higher bracket are also thinking fuck it.

Untrue.
The Prime Minister for example pays a lower proportion of his income in tax than teachers and nurses. Helpfully he has published that information for us all to understand the ludicrousness of the tax system.