Do you think the government should raise the threshold for child benefit?

[nancydroo]

My understanding is if one person in the household earns £60k the household are not entitled to claim child benefit. If they earn £50k or more they get taxed on it but still get to claim it. However, if the combined household income is higher than this threshold but shared over a couple they can still claim child benefit. Do you think the government should raise this threshold? Are you nearing the threshold but going to miss the child benefit as income?

That is referring to where pension is deducted from your gross pay before tax being applied. It depends on how the pension is set up but most you will be taxed on your gross income without having pension contributions deducted and the pension company claim tax relief at source. Check your payslip to see if your taxable pay is different or the same as your gross pay for month and year to date

Oh I see, thank you 😊

Good suggestion!

I seem to remember at the time the government defending it by saying the system was designed to be straightforward not fair.

I always understood the argument to be that two full time working parents have childcare to pay for that a family with a sahp doesn’t and that having just one working parent is a choice. I agree re. Single mothers though, that is unfair but not with two parents.

Two parents can be working full time and not be eligible for CB because one of them earns too much. Meanwhile two other parents can also be working full time and have a greater family income but still get full CB. It’s wrong and unfair.

Given the news that the nest budget may scrap the current CB higher charge if that's announced in Aprils budget when would the changes likely take effect??

It's worth £200 a month to me and that would make a huge difference as a single parent

Yes. Should be on joint annual

2 people can earn £49k so £98 and get it

but one person if earns £51k doesn’t

Totally agree. Even more backwards than 1 earning over the threshold and a SAHP is one earning over the threshold and a parent working FT to maintain a career while just about covering childcare costs. Totally backwards they can't claim CB

They could scrap CB completely and adjust universal credit as necessary so lower earners still receive it and the taper is on household not individual income. So means test it using the system that already exists.

Perhaps they could also address the labour shortage by improving childcare affordability and provision, especially during the evenings and at weekends, making it easier for parents to work, but now we're totally within the realms of fantasy.

In all likelihood one person earning £51k will get it, because it's after pension contributions and most people earning £51k will be paying far more than £1k pa into a pension, plus it tapers away, so most people will get some CB until their salary goes quite a bit above £60k.

Did it rise to £60 as sure it used to be £50k

not that I’m ever gonna earn that so I can cb

i think it should be universal

It starts to taper at £50k so you have to pay some back but not all, by time you get to £60k you have to pay all back. Always been these levels since introduced

No

The levels haven't changed at all since the charge was introduced so not kept pace with wage inflation at all

Going back to whether the current system is unfair, I agree that for single parents it does seem unfair.
But could you not argue that, if it was per household, then this would be subsidising some SAHP whose partners work to stay at home not working (out of choice) when they could be contributing to the economy. If both parents work childcare costs will be way higher so therefore the money js more needed. It is, for many people, a choice and a luxury to be a SAHP. If you are earning over 60k with no childcare costs, that's not a bad position to be in surely.

I think it should either be scrapped completely and rolled into UC or returned to a universal benefit.

The current mix and match approach just leads to unfairness in the system.

I disagree with this, it shouldn't be taken away from more people than currently. I would be happy for it to return to a universal benefit but removing it from more people would be the wrong thing to do.

Indeed! Agree with both your points.

For clarity, I don't think it should be taken away from existing kids, but it could be removed in ten months' time so anyone becoming pregnant from now on would know that they would not receive it but anyone already pregnant would.

Not that I think that people have kids based on whether they'll get CB, but it would be fairer to do it that way, rather than take it away from parents who rely on it.