What do you do with your Child Benefit?

[emmaalwaysinadilemma]

My mum was horrified when it came up in conversation that I put half our child benefit payments aside to pay for our annual family holiday. The other half goes into a pot mainly for the DCs' clothes, and other odd bits they need. She thinks this money should be put into a savings account for them - which it would, in an ideal world, but there's no way we could afford to take them on holiday then

I'm now curious about what other people spend it on, and if my mum is right that it's a bit unfair of me to spend it on holidays?? As I said, if I didn't do this then the children would have no holidays as we simply couldn't afford it.

I was a sahm for a couple of years so we used it to pay into my pension. I'm working now and it now just gets used for whatever stuff we need, I don't specifically allocate it for anything now.

I’ve only been on mat leave with it so far and it’s gone on buying things for DD. I put it in her account and then use it for things like car seats, clothes, shoes.
Once back at work it’ll probably be the same. I doubt it’ll get put away as savings but DD is fortunate to already have an ISA and premium bonds. She’ll have about £50k from my parents so I’m not worried about not saving for her!

I like the comments about how it shouldn't be paid if you save it. I save it for DD I am a songle parent who works full time. I don't need it to top up my NI or anything else as I have never been a housewife I have always worked and provided for my child. It ia the only benefits I get and I will do what I want with it.

We don’t get any. DH earns just over the cut off. We are very lucky that this allows me to be a sahm so I claim the national insurance stamp element.

Goes into my account with my wages. Ds gets spoiled enough and already has a healthy savings pot at the tender age of 7.

It mostly goes on food and bills. I tend to have more month at the end of the money than the other way around.

For the people whose tax bill swallows up the benefit under the new rules, do you claim it anyway and and then pay it back or do you not claim it at all? I thought I read somewhere that it was advantageous (in terms of NI) to carry on claiming? We stopped claiming in 2013 or whenever the rules came out but I'm wondering now whether that was a poor decision. Also does anyone know whether pension is treated as income in the same way?

It goes into the bills bank account, as does half of dp and my salaries. We save £50 for each child each month, so not quite the full amount.

@AlwaysLatte you need to claim it to receive the NI benefit in your name towards your pension, then tick the box to say you don't want to receive the money.

If you work full time it's probably a moot point but if not you really should.

We're In Ireland and it's not means tested so €140 per month per child. We save it.

For the people whose tax bill swallows up the benefit under the new rules, do you claim it anyway and and then pay it back or do you not claim it at all?

Due to my salary, we have to pay it back through me submitting a tax return, so we have stopped receiving it now, as we can't be bothered with the hassle involved.

The rules are a piss take to be honest.

Ours just goes into the main account with all our other income and used for daily life, bills etc etc.

It just goes in to my account like everything else and is used to buy what is needed or pay whatever bills need paid at the time. I don't section it off or do anything specific with it

I was going to save it all but DS is 7 and theres £1000 saved so far. So yeah, it's going well 👀

Put it into savings, but buy DS’s gifts & clothes out of it. My parents lived very frugally and saved all of ours to pay towards our weddings, bless them!

I'm really glad my parents didn't do this, I'd have hated to have gone without my pony for a wedding that never happened 😆

My parents always saved the CB received for my DB and myself. We were quite poor and it paid for Christmas presents and camping holidays. When my children were born there was more income than my parents had so we were able to save the CB for my DD and DS. My DD used hers to fund uni fees. My DS used his for various things including private medical costs for treatment and surgery he needed and the remainder added to his savings to buy his first house.

Ask you mum for your money she saved for you, remember to mention the interest which must have mounted up.

We save half of it for DD and the other half is used on her clothes, toys etc.

I definitely think some I know are taking the mickey claiming it in the first place.

To he honest, some folk probably think that they pay enough in tax etc that why shouldn't they get something back? And no, I certainly don't fall under that category. However it does seem as though those who contribute the most get the least in this country.

I definitely think some I know are taking the mickey claiming it in the first place.

If they are within the limits, they are entitled to it. The rules on it are ridiculous.

You can have a couple both earning a quid under £50k each and they get the full amount. A couple where one is on £50k and the other is nowhere near that and you pay a certain amount back. One on £60k and the other not, you are entitled to nothing.

It's skewed.

Ask you mum for your money she saved for you, remember to mention the interest which must have mounted up.

@mummy2017 she gave me it as the deposit on my first house

Ours goes into our joint account, and then we do put savings into DDs account every month and the rest just goes on whatever she needs in the month, mainly clothes as she is only 1. We dont really keep track of it tbh.

My parents did put ours to one side and used it for the family holiday. As an adult now I am happy they did that. Money was tight, but they created great memories for us.

When I was a single parent it was a lifesaver. Sometimes on a Sunday I had just enough food left for the children’s school lunches. I used to get the CB in cash , from the post office, on Monday and I was able to do a shop .

@midnightstar66

Put it into savings, but buy DS’s gifts & clothes out of it. My parents lived very frugally and saved all of ours to pay towards our weddings, bless them!

I'm really glad my parents didn't do this, I'd have hated to have gone without my pony for a wedding that never happened 😆

To be fair the last sibling isn’t married yet and they’ve said at some point they will just give him the cash. But at what point do you turn around to your son and say ‘we’ve lost hope, here’s the cash instead’

It's paid into our joint account so technically it just meshes with everything else however we save £100 a month for DD so essentially it goes straight into savings.

My husband is facing redundancy at the end of this year so unless he finds another job, the savings will stop as we can't afford it on one wage.

We used to use it for Christmas and birthdays but now we’re not entitled due to DH evening just over the threshold. I really don’t think it’s fair that some children are getting a nice nest egg courtesy of the government and some aren’t entities to a penny 😡.