Child benefit

[Sunisshining12]

Just to check I am understanding this right, you put in the highest earners income only? Not your combined income?

And I totally agree that the Gov are screwing us all. One parent working their arse off quite literally & the other either staying home so not earning or back at work but with childcare costs basically earning very little. I don't know the solution. Until school age it's like no mans land

Yes tax obviously higher the more somebody earns. Id rather that to be honest as you still end up with more after tax then you do earning less. If DS earned more we'd be better off. Each to their own on what they consider well off as everybody has different lifestyles and situations. Its the government to blame...austerity at its worst

I agree we won't be okay
Off until Dc in school and I can earn my fulltime wage again even part time would help at this point with no child care to pay for...

Yup - No mans land it is and has always been like that - it was for me in the 90's bringing.
Once i'd paid childcare, pension and communing costs i was left with £121
I had no choice as i needed that £121! - no tax credits back then.

But - it does get better and I'm glad I struggled on through those years as i still have a professional job and a decent pension now.

Sonnet They don't even
Give you tax credits half the time when you need them it's appalling

Sonnet that's good to hear, I'm looking forward to returning to work just for the peace & quiet 😃 I'll have £88 per week when I return but like you say long term I will earn a lot more & stay on track career wise. And £88 is still money to put towards the kids!

Bella I don't know how tax credits work. It's your private business of course but how/why is your mortgage 75% of your income? Could you extend the term to make the monthly payments lower (i know that's not financially savvy) but perhaps just short term until you go back to work. Do lenders still offer 'payment holidays'?

We've had kids 'later' I guess you would say so managed to save a good deposit & buy a house. Our mortgage is the same as yours £1500. I think it's enormous even on our earnings. And that's with low interest rates.

The crazy thing is I bet if your OH earned less you would get more credits & technically have more money!

Whilst I accept the system is flawed, for all of you stating that it should be the household, how do you define “household”?
I live with my partner but our tax affairs are separate as I am PAYE and he is business owner so has an accountant. How do they link us together to decipher the child benefit? People who are trying to screw the system will just say they are not one household, how would you prove otherwise?
And then there is data protection about each other’s tax affairs.
And what about the husband earning £100k’s and not giving his SAHM wife any money for children (I am stereotyping, it just as easily could be wife earning and SAHD or same sex relationship). Then the Child benefit is of immense value.

I definitely think the system is flawed but I don’t know how I could make it better?

I believe that pension contributions are taken into account, for example if your DH earns £50k gross, then pension contributions are deducted from that amount which may bring his income below the CB threshold. In some circumstances it’s worth slightly upping the pension contributions in order to be eligible for CB.

Whilst I also accept the system is flawed - as indeed are most - don't get me started on free childcare for people earning £99K - your statement Also makes me laugh they refer to £50k as HIGH income. Yes it's not bad but it's certainly not HIGH. just isn't true. Go look up the figures. Go see what a tiny % of people earn that much. Mathematically, statistically, whatever word you want to use, that makes someone a high earner, in terms of numbers, compared with the population as a whole.

@Quit if either of you wanted to claim CB then you would have to declare to one another what you earn I guess. So there is no data protection. Just like when I was looking at the CB I had to ask my Husband what his salary is. He told me no problem (and of course I knew roughly) but you have hit a good point - what about those men/women who don't share money & keep their finances separate or private. And like you said you could have a 'high earner' on say £60k who has lots of debts/nice lifestyle/big outgoings/likes to save lots/other possible factors then a low earner or non earner who doesn't get a piece of that, and is struggling & would therefore really appreciate that CB.

I would assess it in the same way as a mortgage, or any other financial application. What is the co-habiting Parents joint income? Isn't that simple enough? Applicant 1 earns £x applicant 2 earns £y, jointly this equals £z?

@back are you saying couples on £100k can get free childcare AND CB?!

Sorry that you find it laughable that I don't think £50k is HIGH in London. It's medium in my opinion. It's London. There are people here earning more money than you could imagine.

Surely there must be some sort of advantage to the Government having this method? I'm trying to work out what though? Is it to keep the higher rate tax payers happy? I can't grasp why they don't have a joint threshold? Surely less people would be eligible then & therefore more money in the pot?

Sunisshining12 I can't think what their crazy reasoning is as it should be based on household income. Because the system has been in place for so long maybe they just haven't bothered amending it...maybe a petition is in order. And if the parents aren't together basing it on household income would still be fair and it wouldn't disadvantage anybody.

I still think defining a household is the difficulty. My adult son will live with me when he is finished uni. His income and tax affairs are none of my business yet his address is same. What you are asking is for people to ‘admit’ they are in a ‘relationship’ which is not ‘household’ which would then take their income out of the bracket and therefore remove their eligibility to claim CB. In a mortgage application you apply with both for your own advantage (get a bigger mortgage). Why would people stand up and say “ok I earn £25k but my live in bit of stuff earns £150k so we don’t jointly qualify.
I think it could only be done by linking incomes together by tax office and not sure there is reliable way to do it.

My OH are not linked, HMRC are oblivious that we are in a relationship.

It should apply to spouses only and obviously not adult children PP

Well they do already consider joint wages for child tax credit QuitMoaning so they could for child benefit too quite easily.

@Quit it's pretty obvious that's not what I meant.

I already said you would declare the joint income of CO-HABITING PARENTS. Parents of the child in question for assessment. What's difficult about that?

If people choose to lie about who lives with them then that is their choice. If they want to commit benefit fraud they will soon be found out. Just if they claim they are a single parent or single occupant for council tax purposes. It's the same method.

Therefore the application would be
Parent 1 earns...
Parent 2 earns...
This equals...
And this figure either is or is not over the threshold.

You don't to have joint tax affairs for this method?

You are correct though that the person completing the application would need to know the other Parents income. But that is the same as the current system anyway.

It's ludacris that couples out there can be earning £80,£90,£100k AND get benefit, when there are people out there who genuinely need help.

That is a massive loophole & must be costing the Gov a massive wedge. There must be a reason behind it! What was the system before then? Why was it changed?

@sunisshining12 I am not having a go at you so no need to use capitals.... I am just not sure how to find a way to make it even better as it is clearly not correct yet.

The system before was arguably worse... everyone got child benefit. You just needed a qualifying child. Your income or lack thereof was not considered at all.

What's galling to me is that it isn't just cash that counts. Any benefit in kind counts towards the threshold too. DH needs a company car. That company car means we lose the child benefit - we can't eat a car, the children don't use it as he works so many hours and we pay shit loads in tax for it. We're effectively being taxed twice.

@call me - the more I learn about this the more baffled I am!!!

@quit I'm just trying to emphasise & explain what I mean (in capitals lol)

So the system has gone from everyone getting it to:

Anyone who earns up to £50-£60k as sole earner

Any 2 parents who earn up to £50k each , totalling up to £100k

But no one in between.

Surely the richer parents will just get richer??!

I don't get the formula!!!

Even if you're not going to claim CB, make sure you register for it (without claiming) so that your children automatically receive NI numbers when they are 16.

Conservatives like to give to the rich and take from the poor so they're certainly not going to change it....

I think it's stretching it a bit to describe people who earn £60k as 'poor' or 'needing help'.

Me and DH aren't those people

Wish we were...

we earn nude half