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.

I think Jojocat's post is the crucial one - removing CB is the very opposite of how Cameron presented Tory policy on tax and families before the election. Voters who voted Tory as a result of Cameron's promises (eg re married couple's tax allowance) will not forget this in a hurry; if, as today's papers suggest, the Tories are worried about the loss of the (traditionally pro-Tory) female vote, then they need to U-turn on removing CB. They can give whatever excuse they like, but if they carry through the removal of CB for their core voters, the electorate will not forget - and the Tories can kiss goodbye to any hope of a second term, in coalition or out of it; and look forward to a very long spell in the wilderness.

Nellie I was thinking that a couple of years modest 3% increase on a 43K salary will make up for it. As with anything some people will miss it more than others, nothing they do is fair.

Gawd shudder that people voted tory for 'married couples tax allowance' of £150 a year.

Ah, but they didn't say it would only be a poxy 150 quid until after the election. Previously it was an unquantifiable bribe.

So some people fell for Cameron's pro-family guff. Not realising everything he says is lies. eg NHS, NHS, NHS.

I don't get the posters saying "Don't have children unless you can afford them".

I could afford them with XP. Now as a lone parent, I rely heavily on my CTC and CB, through no fault of my own.

Not everyone has a choice. It's not the way I saw my life going, but I'm grateful for what I get.

My dh gets the cb for our 3 dcs which is £180 per month. He is very part time work and mainly sahd. I am full time worker in hrt bracket so we'll lose our cb. In order to make back the £180 per month I'll have to find a way of earning the £180 plus the 40% tax so that would be £300 per month or another £3,600 pounds gross income a year.... Any suggestions or have I got this wrong???

Teeny, or DH could earn another £40 a week.

to add to Sleeping's point how many posters actually think people sit there with a calculator, rub their hands with glee and think oooo how much can I get from the state per child there are plenty of lifestyle choices we make which may or may not mean we qualify for help from the state. And actually you were all children once - how many of you benefitted from free education, free healthcare etc? And I'm sure you'll say "but I pay taxes" - yes so does every other working person. I pay (plenty of) taxes and have no problem with them being spent on things like welfare. We need a safety net - I don't want to live in a country where we leave those who have fallen on hard time to rot.

Given the Right Royal Fuck Up that was/is CTC WTC claim processing, I can't see how they're going to 'join up' data about families with any degree of accuracy.

If dh is higher rate tax payer and dw is in receipt of CB for example. Dw could reasonably state that she doesn't know what her dh earns (he has no obligation to tell her), causing a beaucratic headache trying to link up dh's earnings/tax/NI with the address of someone who claims CB.

I can't even begin to imagine the complexities for blended, step and separated families.

It's possible that Cameron and Clegg (who's he?) are going to leave this alone for a while as it will Piss Off a lot of their already Pissed Off voters.

It would be fair to take it from all households bringing in over a certain amount.
It would be fair to give it to everyone regardless of income.
It is not fair to penalise households where one person happens to pay higher tax but who might bring in half as much as the households who get to keep it.

Unbelievable that they could even pretend to think it is fair. And unbelievable for the millionaires Cameron and Osbourne to pretend they think £42k a year is a lot of money.

I like RaspberryRoop's idea.

I think it should be a universal benefit. After all raising children costs money. All workers get a tax-free allowance as recogition that there are some unavoidable costs, so why should families not get some extra income for the costs of bringing up their children. I think all the comparion between families earning 40 and 42k etc is missing the point. Why not compare people with kids and without on the same income level, and see who needs more money.

Alternatively they could do what they do in other countries and give parents an increased tax-free allowance, and increade their income by reducing their tax bill ....

We don't need our CB. I'm happy to give it up since there are others that need it more and in "doing our bit" to reduce the deficit or what have you this is something we can live without.
However, it is totally shitty that a household on 80k gets to keep it whereas on on say 43k won't.
They almost need to have an honesty policy in place whereby you only lose it if you are prepared to admit that you are above the threshold as a house (which needs to be dropped from a potential maximum income of circa 80k to much lower). If you get caught claiming it when you're not entitled, then you will be fined and have to pay it all back including interest.
Not great I admit, but means testing really is too expensive in this instance so what else to do!

Sleeping exactly.

When we had all ours we were either both working or DH was and I was completing study that should have added ++ to our income security (my degree- had reached a sort of glass ceiling without one)

Then the boys were diagnosed with SN and we could still cope with me at home because DH had a decent job

Then he was made redundant and so we have had to start again, his retraining and mine should be complete next June which is promising but we all know how the job market is right now.

I wonder how many people could really withstand that level of bad luck, and feel quite proud that we are still on track, Dh has maintained employment of the self employed variety and I am making an appointment with a new business advisor this week.

Life throws curve balls, no point in pretending that doesn't exist because no matter how much people criticise others it doesn't prevent it happening to you.

If they do go ahead with scrapping CB for HR Tax payers, we're properly fucked. DH a few hundred quid over the threshold, I'm a SAHM, we have three young DC and live in Edinburgh. We bought a flat a few months ago (small three bedroom flat) as we were spending £££ on moving every time a landlord decided to throw us out (this happened three times in two years!). We have a small crappy old car (necessary for DH's commute to work). We haven't been on holiday (except a couple of long weekends in the UK). Even a camping holiday is beyond our means!

We are barely scraping by as it is. In fact we have steadily worked our way through all our meagre saving in the last couple of years, and our monthly outgoings are slightly greater than our incomings.

I can't afford to get a daytime job (cost of childcare prohibits it...have no family nearby to help), so I guess DH and/or I will have to get evening/weekend jobs to cover the loss of CB. I fear for our relationship, as money issues are already causing strain. Dh already works LONG hours. We don't have enough time for each other as it is.

I do feel utterly aggrieved that families with almost double our income will keep CB. I do realise that we as a family will have to feel the pain of cuts, but those who are better off than us should bloody well be feeling it too!

The phrase "We are all in it together" makes me want to laugh/cry/gnash my teeth.

I can only hope!!!! Please don't take it away......

SpawnChorus - exactly.

The idea that every family with 1 earner on HRT is loaded is ridiculous.

IF you happen to have bought a house years ago and only have a teeny-tiny mortgage, IF you live somewhere up north, say, where housing is cheap, IF you only have 1 child, IF you have family who can provide free childcare - maybe then you could be quite comfortably off. I don't know. If you have sizeable housing costs due to the bloody ridiculous cost of housing these days, and also have spending on childcare, transport etc (increasing well beyond inflation, whilst salaries are on a pay freeze and tax has gone up - plus the cost of food and othe essentials increasing rapidly), then no, having 1 earner on HRT does NOT make you wealthy.

1 earner on HRT is never going to be wealthy in my opinion....HRT is set too low, with the increases we have seen food, fuel, insurance, rents, mortagages, never mind child care, transport .......

We haven't had any holiday at all for 4 years, no luxuries essentials only...no spare cash at all, and losing CB if they do this will well and truely push over the edge, I do not know how we will make ends meet. I am really worried.

Ditto, Sparkle. :(

breadandbutterfly

What is that phrase about walking a mile in someone elses shoes..... I have to say I don't think any of them in government or opposition have any idea or perspective..... For me this could a labour policy as much as it is conservative one.....

Hmmmm keep child benefit for all (whatever they earn) but only for the first 3 kids.
ducks

The problem as Yellowsubmarine states is one of tax law. We have independent taxation, so dh doesn't know (in theory) my income, and under current legislation I do not have to tell him, and vice versa. Not everyone gets tax credits, so there will be a pool of cb claimants for whom HMRC have no household income details. That's where it will become interesting.

scary I agree with you, but with working tax credits, it was a joint application, so the only way I can see how they would get around it is by stopping all child benefit, and then everyone would have to apply again declaring household income.

I will quietly interject to point out that in the areas where housing is cheap, wages tend to be much lower as well: there are areas where prices ahve risen way in excess of that general balance such as the SE but it is a general fact- Wales where I live is a case in point, Dh was offered £15k to manage a haulage fleet when we moved here (luckily he could commute to his own job paying £10k above that)- wages except in certain areas of high demand tend to correlate to house prices. London, and also certain parts of SE, SW (Cornwall, Somerset- low wages but ++ house prices) and a few others.

scary - this is a copy of what i pasted earlier from my letter from the Treasury re: cb removal -
28.04.11
'as set out in the White paper, CB will not be included in the Universal Credit....The Chancellor wanted to avoid creating a complex new means test for household income that would have fundamentally changed the nature of Child Benefit. ...Families with no higher rate tax payer, which is around 80% of all families claiming Child Benefit, will be unaffected by this policy....It will be the responsinility of the HR tax payer to inform HMRC whether their household is in receipt of CB...' etc etc

Interesting. Isn't there a basic tenet in criminal law where spouses enjoy privilege (except in extreme situations such as endangering a child etc). Am not suggesting lying to HMRC, but what about not wishing to disclose marital confidentiality?