To think this epitomises the squeezed middle - HMRC shitiness

[lurchersforever]

So the weekend before Christmas I have received the joyous news that I have not paid enough tax this year so my personal allowance for the rest of the tax year will be adjusted so I can pay it. This will wipe out the pay rise I have just received (it was the teachers' 5.5% and the first 3 months were pretty much wiped out anyway as they were received in a lump sum in November so taxed more, so that what I received for 3 months was the same as I what I got for one month this month). Next month I'l get nothing as a result of the unpaid tax. I am due another pay rise next month as will start a promoted role so I'll see what that brings but it won't be much as not a huge step up this time.

Next month my mortgage will go up £100 as I've had to renew for the first time since the rates rose (it could be worse) and I also have to pay back pretty much all my child benefit from last year which, as a single parent with an ex who pays nothing (I am with CMS - he's low income but owns a house outright and has money for stuff he wants) stings a lot.

I did exam marking in November, which nearly killed me in terms of workload, and got £630, which is £100 less than the tax I owe so is essentially wiped out by that.

I'm so fed up. I earn a salary that I never thought I would and would have thought if I did it would be great, but disposable income isn't that different from what it was pre-Covid as a result of col etc, but, worse than that, every time I do get a bit extra it's taken away. Enormous increases in workload and stress for next to nothing in the end. What is actually the point in working yourself into the ground for it just to be taken?

As pp said it’s inflation.

60k today is the equivalent to 48k k in 2020 or 32k in 2000. Salaries are pretty crap in the UK but people have only woken up to it recently. Plus the frozen tax bands.

Child benefit should be universal without a limit, the equivalent was in the past.

I am in a lone parent household, so only get the tax relief on my income rather than on two incomes as in many households, I feel cross about this a lot.

The fact I pay more than two people on a very low or minimum wage dual income does annoy me, as I am not able to benefit as much as them by increasing my wage over any given tax bracket. If they earned £20k each, they get tax relief on 12k on both 20k, they pay tax on 16k, where as if I earn 40k, I only get tax relief on that once, so am paying tax on 28k of it. Unfair in the extreme and means if I want to try to earn much more for my household, as a lone wage-earner, I have to earn more than they do for the same salary. My 'household' isn't maximising the tax allowance by being a lone parent one, and pays more in tax as I reach the thresholds quicker on one salary than on two with the tax burden spread....

It wasn’t, it used not to be payable for the first child. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a means tested benefit just as WFA is now. We shouldn’t be handing taxpayers’ money to people who don’t need it.

YANBU OP

What makes this worse is that Labour have just gifted train drivers a very generous pay rise on top of a very generous salary, with no strings attached ... and they are still refusing to work weekends and/or going on strike.

I'd like to see RMT/ASLEF members teach a class, day in day out!

Rant over. I feel your pain OP

It wasn’t, it used not to be payable for the first child.

Im sure it was universal in the 90s & for the eldest? People had more dc decades ago so I don’t think excluding the first child prior to do would have made much difference compared to now.

There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a means tested benefit just as WFA is now

WFA has only just become means tested, how many years was it universal?

We shouldn’t be handing taxpayers’ money to people who don’t need it.

Id argue all families should be given CB, they do in many other countries. No one is going to have dc to get CB but we desperately need more dc since nobody wants more immigration. Higher taxpayers pay a lot into the system & are getting less out with things like state pension age moving out, changes to other taxes, why not throw them a carrot.

“Changes to the family allowance were made by subsequent governments. For example, it was expanded to include the first child in 1975. However, it remained a universal benefit.”

“The family allowance was replaced by child benefits in 1977. Child benefits remained a universal benefit until 2013, when a tax charge was introduced for earners over £50,000.”

The world didn’t start in the 1990s @Radishknot.

Lol, another fabulous contribution! 😆

It’s ok to get something wrong, don’t be embarrassed 😜

I didn’t get it wrong. There was no child benefit paid for the first child before 1975.

And 50k in 2013 is approx 70k today so the cut off for paying it back should have been raised before next yr.

Hang on. You took on a new job (exam marking) without first working out the effect on your tax bill?

I didn’t get it wrong. There was no child benefit paid for the first child before 1975.

Except that’s not what you replied to my post. You said It wasn’t, it used not to be payable for the first child.

But it was post 1975 as I later added. I don’t think most people on this thread would be referencing back to 60s….I mean I’m sure child benefit didn’t exist in the 1800s but that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist in the past.

🙄

@BIossomtoes I feel you do that a lot but it doesn’t make a difference. Maybe Santa will bring you some joy on Christmas Day!

Let’s just agree to disagree cause it’s boring now.

I sympathise. Pay rises in this house have left us much worse off.

I'm in a very similar position to you. The teacher pay rise pushed me over into the £50k tax bracket last year but only by about £1000. However it impacts child benefit as a solo parent. I chosen to pull out of exam marking this summer as it wasn't worth the effort to have to pay 40% tax on it. I certainly wasn't spending every minute of my spare time marking over three weeks to earn £500 max. I know that many heads of my subject did the same and now the exam boards can't get enough exam markers.

@lurchersforever could it be a mistake?
Lots of colleagues and I received a similar email a few days ago. Also working in a school. HR have investigated and it was an error that will be corrected.
Our pay came through as normal, full amount, no change in tax.
I'd contact your HR department before panicking.

@niclw could you pay more into your pension?

I struggle to find sympathy OP as yes you may have to pay 40% tax above a certain amount but you also get to keep the other 60%. Plus you’ve had pay rises and are due another. I think there are many, many more worse off.

I sympathise. Pay rises in this house have left us much worse off.

How is it possible you earn more but take home less - not being bossy but even with the marginal rate at £100k and associated tax allowance etc there would be a small uplift. Maybe not taking home as much as you thought but it’s not a pay cut? Is it childcare related?

Same here - I’m reducing hours slightly to take me back under the threshold I have just crept over, but they also calculated my pension payments wrong so are taking more money off me for a few months to correct the arrears. If they hadn’t taken so long to agree the rise and then pay the money I would’ve been able to adjust my hours sooner and not ended up with arrears.

Think of the starving in Africa. Or was it China? India? Something like that.

This is not what the thread is about.