If the PM DID means test child benefit could you manage without it?

clairehi

According to BBC website and Five Live "government sources have indicated that "means testing" or ending the universality of such benefits will not happen."

LilacPixie

If it was means tested no doubt we would lose CB. Currently we use it for days out as a family and for both kids gymnastic classes and swimming lessons, and with baby number 3 on the way the £180 or so every four weeks is of course useful. Could we cope with out it? yes but days out/activities would need to be curtailed.

Becles

Child benefit and child tax credits are worked into my already tight monthly budget. If I lost the income from either (or both!), I'd have to cut back in other areas or try and find way of increasing the income to cover it.

I also agree that if you can afford to put it into savings, then you don't really need it. I don't think I'll be in a position to give mine a nest egg when they reach adulthood.

I was interested in the comments about limiting it to a number of children. Large numbers of children sometime have reasons rather than be accidents. I had two children but my ex did off and left us. I then met someone else and we had a baby that is my third but his first. He was desperate to be a Dad and although he loves my boys, he really wanted one of his own and to experience the pregnancy, birth and baby bits.

savingmummy

If i lost my CB i would be in real trouble!!
I would have to certainly take a trip to CAB for some advise on my monthlyl SOA!!

Spendless

It has varied thru-out the 10 years I have been claiming. Initially it was needed for bills (as we'd lost my income). Later when hubby's salary rose it went to extras (school uniform, activities, holidays) when the recession hit and hubby took a pay cut it went back to being needed for bills, for the past few weeks that I've worked p-time it has been used to pay back the debt caused by a financially tough year. It's possible my job will end soom at whcich point we may be back to using it for bills. If it continues we'd (eventually) get to the stage where it could be put into savings.

However thru-out all this and you can see from the above it's been needed at some of the times, if it was means-tested we would have lost out, because we are a middle income family andlikely to be in a bracket where it is stopped.

rach

We are expecting our first baby and although we do not need the benefit and would most likely lose it if it means tested, it will certainly come in handy. However this may change as with the public sector cuts who knows if I will even have a job to go back to.

I don't feel bad that we'll get it, we pay a lot of tax between us for very little benefit as I see it, we won't get any tax credits if/when they change the threshold and sometimes I wonder why we both work so hard and would aim to continue to, even with childcare costs! I would also say that living in London where outgoings are so high (not matched by salaries proportionately higher, though they are a bit more) we'd end up losing on 2 counts if means tested!

Spendless

galvanizersbaby wrote: »

It's a long time ago now for me but I think I could only claim child benefit after my first was born - unless things have changed

That's correct. It initially wasn't paid for the eldest child as it was set up after WW2 to encourage people to have more kids. I think it was during the 1970s that it was changed so you received it for the eldest born too. I know for a while my mum received the same rate for me and my sister and then it was changed to the current system of paying more for the eldest child.

FATBALLZ

If you can't manage without it you shouldn't have had kids.

bylromarha

2 years of DSs 6 year life it has been essential. We saved it all his first yearof life. Second year of his life we needed the CB, and dipped into that which we had saved of it the previous year, as we did year 3.

Year 4,5 and 6 it's been unnecessary. Means tested is a silly idea - too small an amount to means test it IMO. I agree it should stop at child 2. Part of our reasoning to not have a third child is that it would be too much of a stretch on our finances. My job to pay for my kids, not the governments.

minimoneysaver

I wonder what the take up of Child Benefit is?