So child benefit to go for higher rate taxpayers

[foxinsocks]

So says George osbourne on breakfast telly. Missed the details but sounds like it comes in from 2013!

bollocks why would this happen today, I'm suppose to be doing housework. In my frilly pinny.

Having recently moved to an area where you only qualify for 15 hours a week at age 3 if your child goes to the local pre-school, we have had to put both DC in a private nursery as we couldn't find any help for the pick up, drop off, holidays etc meaning that we lost about £1500 towards out annual childcare costs (running at £1200 per month). Under the proposal for CB, we lose that as well.

I know some people think we don't deserve it as our earnings are above the limit but without it there is no point in me going to work. Our child care costs are not taking into account AT ALL.

It has been a struggle losing the assisted nursery place funding but without CB it is not worth me working at all. Result of this - less tax & NI going into the system.

I think these proposals will drive more and more people to not RTW after maternity as they will be no better off having spent all those hours at work and away from DC.

When kids are in school and no longer require child care, I can accept that maybe my situation re CB should be reviewed. At the moment it is the only thing keeping me in work!

I'm sure there are many other people in the same boat. We pay more in tax & NI than we get out of the system in tax, NI (as well as stimulating the economy by paying for child care). All that money will be lost if we all give up work. Net result - cost of this being more than the benefit!

Presumably if you have two modest earners in a household, whose gross salary adds up to a little more than £22k, they are having to pay a lot out in childcare to enable the second earner to work. However if your main or sole earner is bringing in £44k, you're either better able to afford childcare or you don't need to pay for it as one of you is a SAHP.

Not that I support these destructive cuts in the first place, but if it has to happen, this way sort of seems to make sense to me (however I'm saying that as part of a family that brings home £37k between us).

You know lately it seems more and more that the powers that be are trying to drag everybody down to a lower level instead of raising more people up.

You work hard, get yourself an education, ok job, so you are not a burden on anyone but you still struggle every month to make ends meet in spite of living modestly. Surely the whole point of trying to earn a higher wage is so that you can support your family better, give them a better standard of living? Where is the incentive to get a better job, better education if you are worse off?

It really rankles that the system is so unfair and yet again it is the paye workers who are hit, whilst those who can play the system through creative accounting/cash in hand work get off scott free

what I don't like is being paid it then being taxed more to claim it back

like HMRC has a good track record of getting this sort of calculation right!

I'd rather they didn't pay it to me in the first place than pay it, then take it back over the year.

at Libra.

Surely you would need a big pinny for your bump..?!

"It looks as if they will be having to send out tax returns to all HRT payers as standard, which will add cost."

and actually might end up with more tax rebates being given, having just sat down and gone thru my DH accounts for the last 2 years he is due a tax rebate due to certain things being tax deductible which he hasn't claimed as he can't be bothered to fill out a tax form.

Our total child benefit and tax credits comes to £2400 a year, which on top of DH's pay (before tax) still keeps us under £30k household income.

I think CB should be for people with very little money, NOT people with a moderate amount of money who are used to a certain standard of living that they can't necessarily afford since the recession.

notyummy, like handbags, I have a pinny for each and every occasion....

The whole point of CB was that women could buy necessary items for their children without having to go to their husbands, no matter what the household income. Just because a man earns more than £44000 a year doesn't mean he won't blow his money on drink/gambling/cars/lawnmowers etc. rather than give it to the mother for his children. CB was meant to empower women and the whole point of it was that it was universal.

It is the only benefit many people receive and small recompense for bringing up the tax-payers of the future - the ones who are going to pay your pension George.

foxinsocks - you CAN just not claim it, thereby taking HMRC out of the equation.

"foxinsocks - you CAN just not claim it, thereby taking HMRC out of the equation."

if you don't claim it you won't get pension contributions.

Good point.

@ naetha"above average priced house in a fairly middle class part of the country"

You might be very frugal and making a very good point, but without making clear the size of your mortgage, and the sector your husband is employed in, you could be just lucky.

I can think of plenty of middle class areas where house prices are relatively low. The problem is that if you can't work you can't live there.

Where I live, if your household income is £44K and you are paying a mortgage (or rent) on a very bog standard family house, you certainly aren't spending your CB on foreign holidays.

If we are all 'in this together', it seems a disproportionately large amount to hit some people with when others who earn more (and may not actually work more) won't be hit at all.

It seems to be up there with the 10p tax rate and even the poll tax - surprisingly ill thought out for a party that doesn't really have a mandate.

It also seems bizarre to expect people to give up almost £2000 now as a kind of donation to the government. Maybe this might be a nice thing for Osborne's yacht owning chums to do (probably the price of a bottle of champagne), but it makes him look very out of touch with the majority of wage earners.

I have just written to our MP and told him that the removal of child benefit from our family leaves me with no choice but to split our family up and look after the children on my own.

This is just too much, I can't cope with this.

I take my CB every month and half of it we invest for our children and half of it we spend on clothes and activities for them.

The half that is invested will hopefully go some way to paying for their education or a deposit on a house, both if we keep going this way, will be out of reach for many low and middle income families.

If only DP and I could job share do 2 1/2 days a wee each, no childcare, CB and less tax to pay!

Libra - yes we are in the same position actually, and we are already owed a big rebate because HMRC messed up DH's company car tax for a year and somehow charged him double. They confirmed in February that we were owed the rebate, but nothing yet. I'm guessing because they are dealing with such a backlog of errors - all these millions of over and under-payments that were in the news a couple of weeks ago.

It's not just the personal is it? It's also how it shapes society.

Is a couple who receive benefits incentivised to have more children and not work, where a couple who work hard to earn post cut-off income can't afford more children.

If that is the perception, people will feel aggrieved/ angry.

If they say they will tax it, does that then mean for example that as I receive £1042.60 (one child), dh will then pay 40% on that, which is £417.04, leaving me £625.56 up, or that they will ensure that dh pays the full £1042.60?

I suppose to an extent it is academic for me as I will only get this until mid 2014 anyway.

Merrymouse - the Tories out of touch with the majority of wage earners? Of course they are. Dave and George come from extremely privileged backgrounds. So does Nick Clegg come to that.

Average household income is not double average income! I think it was somewhere around 31k a couple of years ago.

Didn't expect anything less from the tories. This stinks!! I'm another one - SAHM, partner may well be in upper tax bracket in a few yrs, depending on his increments and if he has a job in a few years. £200 a month for 3kids helps lots.

This should be household income. How many more people are going to claim they are separated from their partner.
If you want to work the system - there will be ways around it, no doubt. Just ask some of the long term people on benefits. (Not all I know some want to work - but MANY have no intention of ever working!)
STINKS!!! B*** Tories! Who voted them in?
Not Scotland.

"I take my CB every month and half of it we invest for our children and half of it we spend on clothes and activities for them."

That is not what it's designed for though is it! Why should you be able to get state handouts to build up a nice little savings account for your children?