What do you do with your child benefit?

[crocodial]

Unsure if I should put it in a separate account for DC or just to use it for his expenses such as baby classes, nappies etc? Financially we're ok so I don't rely on this payment to pay for his things so I see it as a bit of a bonus and think maybe I should set that aside for him?

Faye but how do you decide who should receive CB and who doesn't?

Eg; you could have two families, both earning just under the £50k threshold, one has a much smaller rent/mortgage, doesn't want to spend the CB on 'toys, new clothes and days out' so makes the choice to save the money for the DC's future. Is that wrong? Should that family be made to return the CB? .

We all know that people prioritise spending differently - not every family needs the CB for basic housing, heating and food.

We haven’t got loads left per month but always try and save some of it. When we had a lower mortgage we saved all of it for 1st child’s first few years but since then we save £40 of the combined CB for two children. It’s not a lot but it’s the only way we can save anything at the moment that isn’t for house or Christmas savings.

Just to add in order to do that I go without new clothes, haircuts and don’t go out that often. I think sometimes other people say ‘it’s alright for you being able to save anything’ not realising some of us have to sacrifice a lot to do that. This is in some cases like mine anyway.

Frivolous things like food and clothes...

Or it could be the swimming lessons, Scouts, Rugby Cricket and pocket money.

Depends whatcway you look at it.

School lunches seem to cost me getting on for £100 a month in secondary school. In my head I use it for that.

Why should I not get it because I choose to save it. Do I NEED it probably not but I pay plenty into the system so why would i not take it?if I can make my child's like a little easier then I will🤷🏻‍♀️

@Ragwort

Faye but how do you decide who should receive CB and who doesn't?

Eg; you could have two families, both earning just under the £50k threshold, one has a much smaller rent/mortgage, doesn't want to spend the CB on 'toys, new clothes and days out' so makes the choice to save the money for the DC's future. Is that wrong? Should that family be made to return the CB? .

We all know that people prioritise spending differently - not every family needs the CB for basic housing, heating and food.

Definitely this. We definitely earn under the £50k threshold and save the child benefit for our kids in the future - car or house deposit or uni costs etc. We manage this because we have made a conscious decision to keep our costs low. We have free days out rather than expensive soft play, sea life, theme parks etc. Their clothes are usually brought in the sale or eBay/vinted. We don't need to use it for food/heating, but if we lived more expensive lives, then it'd certainly be swallowed up in the family pot.

Um
Just goes in my current account and I spend it
Along with my salary and maintenance from my ex

So it could be on food for the children
Or
It could be on the manicure I had on Saturday!

I wouldn’t notice if they stopped paying me CB and didn’t even tell me

But I’m not going to say no to it!

Ours used to just go in the household pot for whatever (used to spend a lot more than that on him a month!) but now we're financially better off ie not paying nursery fees, child benefit and his DLA go in his savings account

*Fayebut how do you decide who should receive CB and who doesn't?

Eg; you could have two families, both earning just under the £50k threshold, one has a much smaller rent/mortgage, doesn't want to spend the CB on 'toys, new clothes and days out' so makes the choice to save the money for the DC's future. Is that wrong? Should that family be made to return the CB?.

We all know that people prioritise spending differently - not every family needs the CB for basic housing, heating and food*

We got CHB for 11years, for many of those years we both earnt a shade under £49 k. It is a massive tax cliff edge as it is also around there that HRT kicks in. We put it away DS is 18 next month he has nearly 11,000 to help him at University

Ours goes half into Christmas/birthday savings, half into holiday savings.

We don’t get it anymore, but when we did we put it directly into DD junior ISA every month. Now we put the equivalent away for her each month ourselves.

We opted out of receiving the payment when the system changed so haven't received it for years. I used to use it to pay for things for the children though.

Use it for school uniform, scouts/brownies subs anything involving the kids really

It pays for her nursery lunches and the bus fare to get her home after.

I save 80% of it for the children’s future needs (averaged out as monthly payments). Most of it is in an account in my name though, so if the shit hits the fan we can spend it to keep us alive.

I use it for DDs clothes, swimming classes and put some aside each month for Christmas and birthday. When it was just DD I’d put what was left in her savings but now with 2 DC there’s not any left

Ours goes into a savings account for DD, and then part of that sum plus an amount from me and DH gets transferred into her ISA.
When DD2 arrives, child benefit will be split 50/50 and we'll do the same for both of them

When DS was a baby I'd rely on it for food, nappies and milk because I was destitute.

Now I'm in a much better place, it has been going into a savings account for him since he was 4.

Ours just goes into my bank account and is just part of the general monthly income, I don’t specifically think oh I’m spending the CB on xyz, but I suppose I could say it pays for swimming lessons and after school club a couple of times per week.

Pays for their swimming lessons.

I've done a mixture of saving it when we were flush and spending it when we weren't. Got £6k saved to go towards their university costs made up of birthday and child benefit money.

It goes on clothes if she needs them, we have a subscription box once a month and it pays for swimming lessons too.
Now we have DS it will go on baby classes :) I'd love to be able to save it for them but feel like I'd rather she get the benefit of it now.