Conservatives child benefit announcement

[idratherbedrawing]

Just heard on the today prog that cons are planning to only take away child benefit if you earn over £120k as a household after the election. This would be a big benefit to my family as we have one higher earner and one v low. Maybe it's cos I'm def not gonna vote Tory but it's actually really annoyed me tho I agree with it - shows they could have done this all along and are now finally offering it when they are languishing in the polls. For many years campaigners have argued it should be based on household income and response has generally been "that's too hard". This coalition govt policy has had a big impact on my family's disposable income since my son was born in 2012, hit us especially hard when we only had one parent working. Really sticks in the throat that they think to change it now- for me the damage is already done.

urgh I sympathise, that’s annoying. We lost it when my DH started earning £50k and it always rankled that another household could have £49k more than us & still get CB.

Totally agree with you. As a household we have pissed about with it since DD (almost 11) was born - claimed it, stopped claiming it, back claimed it, repaid it in full some years. Meanwhile friends with a higher income than us have received it without issue because both parents earn around the £45k mark. I don't know how such a skewed system was ever allowed to be put through. It wasn't that long before DD was born that everyone received it - millionaire or pauper - so I don't know why they ever changed it, apparently the OAP winter fuel thing would take too much administration but they were happy enough to change the child benefit from what it had always been. Changes could have been made long ago.

I get that’s it’s annoying when you fall on the wrong side of something like this, but you can’t go through life being angry about things others get at different times to you. This is something that will change for the better for lots of families and it’s good that they will be getting more help. Particularly now with the cost of living, house prices, increased student fees all hitting younger families harder than previous generations.

You are right, stupid to be angry and I do agree should be done as will benefit many families in need of income boost. And hope Labour adopt the policy. But it does show they could have altered this system before, and were dishonest in claiming it was too hard. But that's the tories for you, liars

Anyway, I hate this govt for many more things than this so though I will benefit from this policy I def won't be voting Tory, even if Labour don't match it, and I expect many parents feel similar. I doubt it will shift the polls. Interested to know if others disagree

Just be aware a pledge isn't a promise or a plan....

Ask yourself why they haven't done it already and why they might pledge to do this now, when they need lots of votes....

The funding for this is shaky - ‘closing tax loopholes’. A pot of money they seem to be committing to all sorts. It falls into ‘40 new hospitals’ and ‘levelling up’ for me. It’s just words to win votes.

But it does make a whole lot of sense. It’d be a good policy if it wasn’t a bribe. They just reviewed this, like 3 months ago. Why didn’t they do it then?

This is something though that Martin Lewis was working on and persuaded the Chancellor to look at. As you say shouldn't any government that gets in be looking at the theory behind it whatever party that is.

.... not too mention that they're not going to be in a position to do it anyway.

Anything from the Tories is just words, when they're not going to be in government to follow up on those words.

Too little, too late. Why didn't they bring this in already, if they could have?

They did actually say at the time they changed it in April they would work towards doing it for the household rather than individual incomes. They changed the thresholds as a quick thing to implement as switching to household will take time and cost to implement.

Labour are not going to bring back benefits for richer people!

Personally this won’t affect my family as we have two similar earners rather than one high and so at some point we will go over the threshold weather it’s done on one salary or the household, so this policy won’t sway me anyway although I can see that it will benefit some households. Hopefully labour match it.

It may sway me more if labour take away child benefit for higher earners, reversing the threshold rises conservatives implemented or putting a household threshold at a lower level.

Yeah, it's the unfairness. One person earning 1p above the threshold would mean nothing for the household, when 2 people earning a lot more collectively, but under the threshold, get it. It doesn't make any difference to me as I would get it regardless, I just hate unfairness.

Yeah that is my beef with the policy, the unfairness. Which is why I hope Labour do something on it too, though @Naran I agree they have higher priorities!

And as @Spirallingdownwards says it was reviewed a few months back and the change could be made the

It's def too little too late for me

Yes ' closing tax loopholes? What the ines that have existed fir the last 14 years, and must have been there while public services were being cut to shreds?
Another ' tax cuts for the rich' policy from.the Conservatives

Have they announced any further details, like whether that’s a gross household figure or whether, like now, gross figure can actually be higher as pensions and salary sacrifice can take you under the threshold?

Ours is £122k, but we pay a lot into workplace pensions.

Our first baby is due in September and we had just become eligible with the recent changes. Maybe we won’t be longer term. That £100 was definitely going to soften the blow of nursery fees though! Which will still be hundreds for 4 days a week and 30 funded hours. I won’t count on it when doing the maths anymore.

Not that I expect the Conservatives to actually get in this summer… this is to try and get middle-earners to vote for them when a lot in this bracket will be voting Labour. Myself included.

Too late for me. Youngest has just turned 18 and I haven't been able to claim it for ten years!

I think Labour will have to chose between making it Universal or making it on household income if (when) they win. Its been made clear that people don't mind a limit, but they do want it to be fair.

I am also suspicious about why they should suddenly pull this one out.

But also seems badly thought out as it creates a 70% tax bracket (effectively)

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/06/06/tories_accidental_70_percent/

Me too. More likely to turn me against them in spite if I was ever a Tory!

Bollocks. What about tax free allowances? I don’t believe they would ever do this, let alone win.

It’s amazing how many of George Osborne’s nasty little austerity measures can be undone to buy votes despite the national debt being far higher than when he introduced them. Like the special tax rate for pensioners, it’s an unashamed bribe. I hope nobody falls for it.

If nothing will dissuade you from voting Labour, then why even waste your time reading policies from any party?

To be fair to the OP, they only said they are definately not voting Tory.

They've only alluded to voting Labour and it's technically more than a 2 horse race, so why wouldn't you read policies from all the others?