Apparently there will be a rethink on the scrapping of child benefit

[emkana]

according to the times today.

If they could look at the fact again that a household on 80k will keep it while a household on 42 will lose it then I'm all for it.

oooo me too, fingers crossed....

If they make it household income, and actually make a clear statement about the position in regards to the NI credit for those who might no longer receive the cash element, then perhaps some good will come of it.

Not many people bothered then?

Well, one possibility raised in a newspaper article isn't (yet) a policy u-turn!

And it's a little tricky to discuss a Times article, because of the pay wall (the real reason there is more DM on t'Internet these days?).

Did it actually have a new proposal?

I'm not at all surprised if it's being reviewed. What obviously looked like a simple rule on paper has thrown up a complicated anomaly and, if there is an attempt to make it fairer, I don't think anyone should be criticised or accused of u-turns.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2043718/Plans-cut-child-benefit-high-income-families-watered-down.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2043718/Plans-cut-child-benefit-high-income-families-watered-down.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Hang on, you say households on 80k will keep it and households on 42k will loose it? In what world is that fair? Famlies on 80k don't need CHB as much as those on 42k or less!!!

Someone please feel free to explain this to me if I am wrong!!!!!

We lost £40 per month family tax credit without any prior warning at all and to be quite honest as a one income family it has made an adverse difference so it is ludicrous to think they can take off another £140 a month and we will be fine. We are scarcely what I would call well off now so it would be most welcome....
There is also the much higher living standards London factor which they seem to have overlooked entirely in this!

at the moment its attached to tax bracket - so a family with a single earner in the higher tax bracket - on say £43k a year would lose it - but a dual income family with wages of £40k & £40k would keep it.

so families with SAHM and single parent families just in the higher tax bracket not very happy!

BlueKangaroo22 if one parent earns above £42k the family will not be eligable for cb. If both parents work but earn below £42k each they will able to keep cb, so a fmily earning £80k between them will keep the benefit!

Bluekangaroo say husband is earning 40k. His wife also earns 40k. Total household income 80k, they keep child benefit as the one of them that will be making the claim earns less than 41k.

Single parent earns 42k. She will lose her child benefit. Same for families where one parent stays at home with the kids and the other earns 42k. They lose child benefit.

Thanks Emkana - it doesn't say what they're planning to do though.

If it is fiddling with transferrable tax allowances for SAHPs, it won't do anything for families containing one high and one low earner.

It's a buggers muddle and they should go back to the drawing board.

The only fair solution is to base it on household income - something they have no difficulty in doing for other benefits.

Actually I think it should have been kept universal, because I see a functioning welfare state more like the Bevan model, than the current utilitarian model. You could however allow the cash cost to be reduced by a prolonged freeze and put more resources into means-tested reliefs. It would also be cheaper and simpler to stick with the existing bureaucracy for administering the benefit. The proposed changes are going to be awkward and costly and will not really yield savings - and really have been terrible for the coalitions reputation for efficiency, effectiveness and fairness.

And still no proper word on NI credits for those currently relying on HRP (or whatever it's called these days).

Gosh, some of you with your £40K incomes cribbing about child benefit.

Spare a thought for students in homes with total income less than £15K (but in work) and losing EMA. £30 drop a week which would have paid for fares, meals and stationery at college.

"There is also the much higher living standards London"

That's not a good argument. CB was universal & fixed which meant you got it regardless of your living costs or income. CB never attracted London Weighting.

FWIW I think London and the SE is going to see a gradual reduction in population as people wise up & relocate to cheaper parts of the country. It may be an 'unforeseen consequence' or it may be part of a deliberate plan. But it's long overdue.

In the response i got from the treasury to my letter re: child benefit being removed they suggested they would be introducing new legislation to implement the measure. they avoided any actual reposnse to my point about the 'fairness' of being all in it together, except for families with a different ratio of salaries reaching similar incomes.

personally, i think the universality is crucial, and i really think that the main carer of children should have access to money that is not related to their partner or their own ability to earn, without having to reach a crisis and then jump through hoops to apply for something.

i would welcome it being rethought. happy = being critical of an ill thought out policy doesn't remove ability to be aware of other rubbish policies - it's not one or the other (particulaurly not with the condems)

Wow our joint income for me and DH is 25k. People who are making over 40k are complaining they might lose CB. Try raising 3 kids with mortgage and bills on lower income. Then you realise how much you need the cb

but do you get tax credits? genuine question btw. i think we could all put down our personal circumstances and make a case for not losing any money!

I agree hiding, we would lose it and I think it is entirely correct.

Yes we get working tax credits but still makes no way near 40k.

no, not suggesting that! just read that that threshold had been lowered and wondered where it sat.

Personally, I wouldn't quibble if we lost it as dh is a higher rate payer. What pisses me off is the unjustice that a family with two earners just below the higher band could keep theirs. There is a family is just this position near me - they have assets worth about 1 million, and both earn about 35K and would get to keep theirs. How is that fair?

We have lost TC,water capping and will loose CB as on 43K.We have 1 salary.

We live in the SW in an area with very expensive house prices and high water bills.We have a smallish house that is over 1K in mortgage per month and 3 kids to feed.

Sorry but it's totally unfair that those families on 80K get to keep it and we don't.

This is so anti SAHP.Many mums would love to be home with their dc,their dc would like to be at home but this gov make it more and more harder to do so.They're clearly anti SAHP.

What gets me is we're the most hard up in our family and we're the only ones loosing it.

Sil has no mortgage on a masseeeeeve house,joint salary of 80K and shares/investments worth a fortune-they keep it.My dsis has 2 good salaries,a lot of financial help,teeny mortgage and they too get to keep it.

happy and hiding

Do you think that letting the coalition off the hook for an unfair and ill-thought out policy (even when it affects only some of those within a specified higher household income group) is going to encourage fairer policy making?

Or will accepting unfairness in one area give a precedent which will make it easier to impose it on others?

This isn't a terribly exact comparison - but how would you react if on £25K you lost a benefit which you saw kept by a family with a different earning profile but income of £40K?