Please explain child benefit to me

[Taxwoes123]

I feel dumb when it comes to tax related stuff. I'm a high earner circa £80k. DH slightly lower. DC is 3.

I've always thought and what I understand is that child benefit in England is for people whose annual salary is £50k or less. From 1 April it's 60k.

My NI contribution is minimal.

Will I get any child benefit after paying child benefit charge for high income ? Is it worth it? I am aware I will also need to do the self assessment. Which I currently don't do.

Once the new changes come in you might be eligible for some children benefit but you and possibly your partner too would have to fill in a self assessment tax form. The form asks about both parents salaries. We had do it this year as my partner was just over the £50k threshold. It's quite a simple form of you are only having to do it for child benefit.
We had been claiming it so the form told us how much to repay. I'm not sure how it works if you aren't receiving it but would be eligible. One important thing to recognise is that it is based on your taxable income not your gross so this is after things like you pension contributions have been deducted.

I’m not certain but I saw Martin Lewis say in April it goes up to 60k and then it’s a sliding scale on receiving a fraction of the amount up to 80k where you receive nothing. So if you earn 80+ then you won’t receive anything. That’s what I interpreted from it anyway. Whether it’s correct I don’t know. Your DH wouldn’t be able to claim anything because you earn too much for it.

Gappy to be corrected though, it’s just want I understand of it.

Oh I just saw the PP mention about taxable income, so it might be worth filling the form in anyway and seeing what they say.

If you earn over £80k, you won't get anything.

OP can you just clarify what you mean about your NI contribution being minimal?

Brb just checking something

How is your NI minimal on 80k?

I suspect that she means that she doesn't have many years of NI contributions, and not that she isn't paying the right amount of NI.

That isn't relevant to child benefit, of course, but the OP may not be aware of this.

If your taxable income is under 80k (so factor in pension contributions, company car, health insurance etc) you may get a small amount if chid benifit after the recent changes.

I don't understand the NI comment.

Assuming you pay into a pension that will bring your net pay below 80k

That will mean that you will retain some of your child benefit.

It is worth claiming until your net exceeds 80k

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves yes you're correct. I don't have many years of NI contribution as I used to work abroad before settling here a few years ago.

I am sorry , I didn't mean NI , but meant my pension contribution is at a very low rate. Not sure if that makes sense ?

Thank you so much though to everyone who's been kind to answer my question.

I will work out using the child benefit calculator over the weekend and see where I get to.

It might be worth doing a forecast for state pension prediction to see the impact on retirement.
There's options for buying back years there are calculators that help you work out if it is worth it or it might be just better to up contributions to a personal pension.
Things like the child benefit can be a prompt to give our finances a once over especially if you can get double benefit of upping pension contributions and gaining more child benefit. Take home pay calculators can show you the real difference as your tax/NI/student loans will drop too

It depends how much you put into your pension! As its worked out on adjusted net income. It could well be worth increasing pension contributions to qualify for some child benefit