DH pay rise and Child Benefit

[feral]

I'm hoping someone will know he answer to this.

DH has just been given a pay rise effective from January taking him to £49,500. Lovely.

However, he usually gets as hoc bonuses of maybe £500-£2,000 pa. this would take him over £50k pa.

Does this mean we lose our child benefit? If so is it all of it or based on a tax return and tapered somehow.

I work p/t and get about £14k so we do reasonably well but I'm still miffed that we could both earn £49k and keep it!

DH has to complete his work benefits form this week and I'm wondering if upping his pension would help here?

If there's anyone who knows about this I'd be grateful as google isn't helping

If his pension contributions take him below 50k then you are fine. Even if slightly above , he would only have to repay a small proportion. Does he complete a tax return?

Yes, if he increases his pension contributions so that his taxable pay is below £50K then you keep the child benefit, although there will be those who tell you that's unethical. I'm with you on the families both earning £49k etc.

If he doesn't take measures to reduce taxable income it will be reclaimed in his tax return on a sliding scale for income between £50k & £60k

There are about 1000 threads on this that explain it all, you should be able to find some useful information if you do a search.

But it is tapered, yes. Iirc, if you earn £1000 over the threshold you pay 10% of your CB back. £5k over it, and you pay 50%.. Etc.

Fab thanks all.

There is something about claiming it even if you have to pay it all back as it gives you NI contributions. Not sure if this only benefits couples with one income.

The government website is pretty clear on how tapering works.

You mentioning upping his pension, which suggests that he is already making some pension contribution. If his earnings are £49,500 + £2000 then chances are he's already under £50K with existing contributions. Doesn't he know what his contributions are?