Do you claim child benefit if one of you is a fairly high earner?

[Rugrats103]

As title. DD is 4, I’ve never claimed it as when she was born DH said he’d have to pay 50% tax on it, so no point.

I’ve just taken a new job which will be a pay cut of £180 a month for me, I’m wondering whether to start claiming it as it would be some money, even if we get taxed of half?

I earn too much but my husand is a SAHD so he claims so that it covers his NI contributions whilst he isn't working. We don't get any actual ££ though. If you get bonuses on top of salary it can be a bit of nightmare working out what you are entitled to so I stopped claiming at the point that most of the time I'd have to give it all back when bonuses turned up.

There is not anything to suggest she did not stop work at all. Having a high earning partner suggests it is possible OP may have stopped work for some of the time. She may not have been entitled to SMP- Self-employed, agency, - and given her DH attitude towards CB he may have also told her don’t bother claiming MA either.

Regardless - it is a good idea for OP to check her NI record. She may have incomplete years that CB would fill.

This sounds more like a relationship issue and how you share finances as a marriage couple.

Claim it and he has to pay it back.

Then I'd say that's a failure of family finances management. If my husband has then I have a vice versa. I was the higher earner for years, then I had mye ldest, he got a promotion and it flipped round, now he's facing redundancy and I'm going to full time and it's flipping again. At all points we've had 1 joint account and all money is everyone's. Ever since we moved in together 18 years ago.

We are registered for it but have selected the option not to have payment due to DHs salary.
Registering ensured that I received NI credits while on mat leave.
The entitlement letter is also required for primary school registration round here to confirm parental responsibility.
Apparently when your child turns 16 it also means that they automatically get an NI number. Not sure if this is true or not.

I make £70k and we take it. But I bank it all for DD and will repay what I owe out of the banked money. So there’s no fear for us of getting a calculation wrong or anything - the whole amount is always there and we can repay at any time.

Yes, claim it and he can pay it back via tax from his income. However, as other posters have said, a child is a joint expense and if he’s not contributing fairly then you have a ‘dh’ problem.

Technically you can claim it and benefit from the income, and then as the higher earner he is liable to pay it back! If you're struggling for money the first step would be to talk about a fairer distribution of joint income, but if he's not up for that child benefit is set up like that for a reason...

If he doesn't share his £93K with you, OP, absolutely claim it (and reconsider your relationship - that sounds like financial abuse). He will have to pay it back out of his wages (he doesn't get taxed on it) but one of the purposes of child allowance from its inception was to help out women stuck in relationships where the men failed to support their family fairly. There is no reason you should not get the financial support you're entitled to so that he can keep more money for himself.

And if you're earning under £550 in any month (check that number, I'm not 100% on it) claiming child benefit means your national insurance contribution will be covered. (Which is why it would have been good to claim when DD was born, unless you were being paid on maternity leave).

Yes, I claim it. For one, because we are both self-employed. Income is variable. Many years Dh (the high earner by far) has to pay it back, but some years he hasn’t. It totally depends on earnings for the year, which are never guaranteed as we aren’t traditionally salaried.

But also realistically, I am slightly disadvantaged compared to Dh by us having children. I do more of the default parenting. My car is used for more family driving, even when it’s Dh doing the runs to activities. Our financial set up is pretty equitable, but I like having my own money and the child benefit goes into my personal pot to account for the little things like cake sale money I have to find or the matchas for dd and her friends when I’m buying myself one or extra expenses that crop up that I want dedicated money for.

If you need it claim it and let him repay it if h won't share resources with you.

Yes. I claim although my husband pays it all back in tax. The reason being if he were to lose his job part way through the tax year, we could find ourselves in the situation where tax is no longer payable on it.

It’s ended for me now as DS2 is at uni but I continued to claim it and DH paid it all back in tax. I cannot believe how ill advised many women are.

First, you at least need to register for it even if you don’t take the money as it gives you NI credits. Second, the whole point of it when it was introduced in the 1940s was to assist mothers with the costs of raising a family. It was explicitly not designed to benefit men. So for both reasons I have always claimed it.

Even if both parents work and do not need the NICs, if an adult family member provides childcare the NIC of the child benefit can be transferred to the carer’s record to help them get full state pension.

These Class 3 National Insurance credits were introduced on 6 April 2011. You can claim them from that date. You may be entitled to these credits if both:

• you are an eligible family member who provided care for a child
• aged under 12
• their parent or main carer does not need the credits themselves

How the credits work These credits work by transferring the weekly National Insurance credit a parent or carer gets, as the Child Benefit recipient, to an eligible family member. They can help to stop gaps in your National Insurance record. You will get a Class 3 National Insurance credit for each week or part week you provided care for the child. There is only one credit available for each Child Benefit claim, no matter how many children are on the claim itself. For example, if 2 grandparents provided care for their daughter’s 2 children, there is only one credit available for transfer. The Child Benefit recipient must decide who should have the credit. If the grandparents provided care for their daughter’s child and their son’s child, there are likely to be 2 Child Benefit recipients. This means 2 credits are available for transfer. If no one has claimed Child Benefit for the child, there is no attached National Insurance credit to transfer. This means credits cannot be awarded.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-specified-adult-childcare-credits