Please sign the below e-petitions to encourage the government to have a proper debate about the current, unfair rules regarding Child Benefit hopefully with a goal of a return to a universal Child Benefit.
If you, or anyone you know, may now, or in the future, be affected by the changes to Child Benefit made last year, you may like to consider signing these Government petitions.
epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/55592
epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/65985
If you aren't sure what the changes to Child Benefit are, in a nutshell, if one wage earner in a family earns over 50K the family will lose all/some of their Child Benefit. The Government justify this by saying that those individuals earning over 50K are the wealthiest 15% of society. This may sound fair at first, until you delve a little deeper.
For example, this means that a household with two people earning up to 50K each (100K combined) keep all of their Child Benefit. However, a household with the same income (up to 100K), will lose some/all of their Child Benefit, simply if one person earns over 50K. Bear in mind, that this might mean the second family earns just over 50K, nearly half the first family's income.
If the Government are happy to pay Child Benefit to the first family, then they should be happy to pay it to the second family too. This should be regardless of whether this comes from one or two wage earners.
Conversely, if they say that those individuals earning over 50K are the wealthiest 15% of society and should lose some/all of their Child Benefit, then families with a household income over 50K should also be considered as the wealthiest 15% of society and lose some/all of their Child Benefit too.
Whichever way you look at it the current rules regarding Child Benefit are unfair and should be reviewed.