Budget - child benefit

[TheOneWithUnagi]

Some good news in the budget today about child benefit.

Current limit at which you start to pay back via higher income charge is £50k, will move to £60k.

You will get no child benefit over £80k vs £60k now. Between £60 and £80k will taper.

Longer term they will look to tax household income somehow. As this still means 2 people earning £59k each will get it vs one earning £61k won't get it 100%.

Shame there was no increase in £100k limit (although hardly surprising given how this is defended on here!)

I do think it should be universal again. I do wonder how much it costs to implement versus savings.

I agree @Elephantswillnever.

Not all jobs are available everywhere, though.

I’ve accidentally ended up in a job that ties me to commuting distance of London. Retraining for anything else is unaffordable, so I’m pretty much stuck where I am!

Virtue signalling. 🙄

It doesn’t work like that. Claim it and give it to someone struggling or to a charity if you feel like that.

Exactly, this is still nowhere near enough to helping single income households. I earn 80K my brother and SIL 47K each. They get full child benefit, I don’t. Their take home pay is significantly higher than mine. It is still unfair. I do have a high income but how can households with higher incomes be eligible for this when I am not. Two people on 40K each get this benefit so why not one person on 80K?

So there are more job opportunities in London than elsewhere? Doesn't sound like a convincing argument for changing the thresholds.

They are moving it to household income from 2026(?) I believe. But for now if earning under £60k you will get it 100%.
I agree it's not fair but better

And they're all on mn

Exactly, this is still nowhere near enough to helping single income households. I earn 80K my brother and SIL 47K each. They get full child benefit, I don’t. Their take home pay is significantly higher than mine. It is still unfair. I do have a high income but how can households with higher incomes be eligible for this when I am not. Two people on 40K each get this benefit so why not one person on 80K?

I don’t see why it should be taken away from one, both parties should get it.

April 2026 I think.
You can apply and easily opt out if you become ineligible to save yourselves hassle of claiming then repaying it.

Why should you get support just because of where you choose to live? Move somewhere cheaper, it’s not rocket science.

I’m not suggesting taking it away from one, I’m suggesting that there is inequality when you look at overall household income. Which there is.

No it helps single in one families like me.

For those who are asking the tapering is currently 1% for every £100 you earn over 50k (net adjusted income) so it looks like it will be 0.5% charge for every £100 over 60k until you reach £80k where you will no longer qualify

Why should you get support just because of where you choose to live? Move somewhere cheaper, it’s not rocket science.

Yes everyone should move to cheaper areas, we don’t need headteachers or doctors etc in London. Obviously when everyone does this prices will increase in the new areas & the locals will be angry they have been priced out 🙄

Great news between this and the national insurance cut.

🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ You really should think things through before posting. Engage the brain, if you can.

Single income that should say. We only have my wages and net effective income is 57k so we have to pay back 70% of what we receive.

I’m not suggesting taking it away from one, I’m suggesting that there is inequality when you look at overall household income. Which there is.

I don’t see why it’s unequal just because there are 2 earners. You can argue that 2 workers have higher childcare costs etc. They don’t means test plenty of other benefits & CB didn’t use to be means tested. It should be universal in my opinion.

Don’t teachers and doctors ger a London weighting?

Yes there is, they are looking to address by looking at household income from April 2026 (I mean in reality it depends if the next government wants to do this). The suggestion was that this is more difficult as tax doesn’t usually look at household income.
I agree it’s unfair but at least raising thresholds helps a lot of families. Remember this is probably where they should have been however if they had kept up with inflation.

How do 2 earners have higher child care costs than a full-time working single parent?

In between all his grinning he explained the rational to go for household income would take until 2026 as hmrc would need new software to deliver it.

In the meantime from April the thresholds would rise to £60,000 and taper until £80,000.

Great news. I earn just under £60k (4 days pw to save on childcare) and was looking into upping my pension contributions to keep CB (I opted in this year during maternity leave as earned under the £50k limit for first time since having kids) but now won't have to

@Rinsby7 huh? Not everyone who loses out in the current situation is a single parent. There are plenty of households where one parent is a stay at home & the other earns 60k so doesn’t get CB. Is this news to you? As I said I think it should be universal.

@Babyroobs the Tory way!