And it’s more complicated than that, because it’s not based on parental income but income within the child’s household. So - mum moves a new boyfriend in, earning over £50K, he’s liable for HICBC.
In my case, would you want HMRC to write me me, my child’s father, his second wife, my second husband? Because HMRC don’t know which house my child is resident in, or if that changes. Don’t forget that you can claim CB in some circumstances for a child that doesn’t live with you.
You could write to all people claiming CB. But often it’s their partner who is liable for the tax, not them. Or you could go write to all people with PAYE or SA over £50K. 13% of the population. I actually don’t know if that’s 13% of working adults, or adults, or something else… but let’s say 70m population, 20% under 18 so 56m adults. 13% of 56m is 7.3m people. A second class stamp is 68p so that alone is £5m.
Do we want HMRC to spend £5m a year of our taxes pointing out something that changes 9 years ago, and for all children under 9 was written on the allocation form?
There’s the argument of offsetting that £5m against the wrongly claim CB of course. But some is clawed back anyway from SA (don’t underestimate the number of self employed!) or existing investigative measures. Tough on that individual but better than a £5m a year cost to the tax payer on a reminder letter which x% won’t even read. And that rather generously assumed that the wrong claims are innocent mistakes - which they’re not.
I don’t want to pay towards £5m reminder mailshots because some people didn’t read the form properly.
Maybe there’s a place for an information campaign for those with children born before 2013, but even then I’d only back that if the result was to stop incorrect as a whole - not because I worry about individuals who will anyway get a payment plan.