Child Benefit to be scrapped for higher earners

[kentsussexborder]

We will miss out too - OH earns just over the threshold & I work a few hours a week at minimum wage. Someone somewhere needs to have a proper think about the implications for those that just creep into the higher tax bracket. To one family earning over £80k and able to claim CB, yet another family with an income of £46k unable to claim is just ludicrous.

Agreed. I saw posts on other forums where people are justifying this by saying that families where both work have a "cost in terms of child minding/ nannies" etc.

It is a daft situation - you could have two households, both parents working fulltime with a household income of £60,000. One where the split is £48,000 & £12,000; where they would lose child benefit and one where the split is £30,000 each and they would keep it. There is NO equality in this situation as both families would bear the same childcare costs.

Whichever numpty thought this one up should be paraded naked through the streets of the UK as they obviously have no shame and no flipping [subsitute another, ruder word] sense!

[mad?]

Well, the numpty is Georgie. I agree it is not a good situation, but the only thing I am surprised about is the fact that they have kept any child benefit at all...presumably a concession to the lib dems? Whilst I agree the Tories did not spell out that they were gong to do this at the election (in fact if you remember they did not spell out anything at all apart from an intention to impose cuts) it is completely in keeping with their economic strategy, the basis of which attracted so many votes. Hmmmm.

[Fluffy66]

We are another household where DH earns just over the limit.

What i'm not sure about is, as this is not coming into effect til 2013 (presumably April?) will that £44K for 40% tax go up between now and then. It may be a case of turning down a payrise to still qualify for CB or at least juggling which is the better option. Does that make sense?? Ridiculus but possible i suppose

[rubyhettybetty]

We are another household where DH earns just over the limit.

What i'm not sure about is, as this is not coming into effect til 2013 (presumably April?) will that £44K for 40% tax go up between now and then. It may be a case of turning down a payrise to still qualify for CB or at least juggling which is the better option. Does that make sense?? Ridiculus but possible i suppose

Not ridiculous at all - we have 3 kids so get nearly £200 a month, which equates to over £4k pay cut, basically

[doodles]

This country is going backwards so fast it's unbelievable. I am realy worried that if they start announcing bankers' bonuses/more cuts/changes to the NHS and education etc etc there will be uproar and we will end up with the equivalent of the general strikes of the 1970's - now where did I put those candles.

I feel really depressed today and very sad for us as a nation.

[pheasantchick]

I guess the answer is for the husband's (or higher earner) to reduce his/her pay to below the threshold, and then 'employ' the spouse, paying the difference to get around this loophole!

[U400JB9]

they are paying bankers bonuses, and the latest reforms giving GP`s the purse strings for A&E depts will kill the emergency services.......so make sure you don`t burn yourself with those candles

[Snowdrops]

On BBC news at lunch time they showed George Osborne giving a speech last year where he swore child benefit, winter fuel allowance and free tv licences for the elderly were safe - they wouldn't be touched yeah right!!

Of course, we're all forgetting, this is on top of the removal of the tax credits next year too.

Caught in the middle and squeeeeeeeeeeeeeezed!!

[kentsussexborder]

I can see that there are cuts needed to be made and that child benefit for higher earners may not be justifiable. I have no problem with that even though, in the South East, I don't believe that my DH or I have particularly high incomes compared to outgoings.

BUT, you have to apply it FAIRLY not in some arbitrary fashion because "it is too hard to sort out". That's what really riles me about this issue. It is just lazy economics and lazy politics and they really need a kick up the jacksy. Both the current lot and the previous lot that got us in this mess in the first place!

I have decided that the only thing to do is get divorced, make DH live in the outhouse and get him a new postal address. Then we could keep the child benefit.

[mike1880]

Come on, we all knew this kind of thing was going to happen :

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... it=osborne