Child benefit - high earner threshold

[Mudonstairs]

I am thinking of applying for child benefit now that the threshold has been raised to £60k. However, because my husband earns £69k we would have to pay some of it back so I’m wondering if it’s worth the hassle. We could do with the extra money and it would genuinely help us get things needed for our DC that we often put off until we can save enough.

Does anyone currently have experience of this process? Do you literally have to do all the calculations yourself and pay it back each year? How have you managed to keep track of it all and has it worked out well for you?

I am worried that we might get the calculations wrong and in future it comes back to bite us. Im not the best with numbers so I don’t want to risk accidentally committing benefit fraud!

It just seems a ridiculous way to give people benefits tbh and I’m sure it’s just the governments way of deterring us from even bothering, but at the same time why should we be missing out! I wish you could just tell them your salary and then they pay you what you’re entitled to, rather than giving you the set amount that you have to work out how much to pay back.

I do a tax return each year. First year was an utter bind and took ages, but after that I simply put in the updated figures. Turns out there's a fair bit I can claim for which is an incentive. The child benefit bit is super easy (literally ticking a box or filling in dates if it is part of a year). Good luck

Yeah I’ve done a tax return twice now and I literally cancelled my CB last Jan so assumed I’d done the final one when they announced it was going up to 80k the cut off point. I earn 63k so it’s definitely worth doing as it doesn’t take long to file the tax return