Child benefit to be scrapped for higher rate tax payers from 2013

Madmonk

Dear Carult - i don't know what planet you live on but a family bringing home £18.000 does not get all of it's rent paid or it's council tax, or any of the other things you quoted! I should know I'm in one of those families!! We pay all of our rent, council tax, dental,eye care, prescriptions etc.. The only thing we get is child tax credit, family allowance and thats it!! So may I suggest you get off your high horse and get your facts straight rather than peddling old wives tales!!

MM

silvercar

I hope the costs of administrating the change don't outweigh the money saved.

MORPH3US

Now the government just need to cut family allowance / child tax credits etc for people who don't work and breed 3+ kids......

dopester

drc wrote: »

It's 2 years away so lots can change in that time.

The calculations suggest it will save £1 billion a year. I don't understand why they're waiting ages, until 2013, to bring in this cut. Unless it's to allow people time to adjust their spending habits for the little extra CB allows.

Action This Day (as Sir Winston Churchill used to write on the top of important memos during the war.) Or at least cut it from 2011-12.

LilacPixie

Really2 wrote: »

So does this mean couple both earning under top rate, say £43K each (total income £86K) would get it but a household with one working on £45K would not?

I agree with the cut, just interested on how it will work?

Looks that way. AKAIK child benefit is only claimed by one person, because it offers some sort of NI credits. My husband claims it for our kids and they won't even speak to me on the phone to change address. I wonder how much it will cost to amend the system to take into account joint income?

silvercar

Receipt of child benefit triggers a number of things that non-eligibility will mean a rule change:

1. For split families, the parent in receipt of child benefit has the rights to maintenance from the other parent.
2. Receipt of child benefit entitles the recipient to home responsibility credit (reduces the number of years required for state pension entitlement).
3. Generally child benefit is paid until the September after a child leaves school, until that point the "child" cannot claim benefits like income support or job seekers allowance.

There are going to be admin and possibly benefit costs of the change. I hope it has been thought through.

RenovationMan

What is strange is that the government say its too expensive to means-test child benefit, and yet they already means-test childrens tax and working family credits. I think the solution would be to scrap Child benefit completely and incorporating it with Childrens tax credit and working tax credits so that benefits are targeted at the poorest who really need it. What is the point of having two/three child related benefits?

The only reason I can think they havent used the CT & WTC calculations for CB is that they are also planning radical changes to CT & WTC.

chucknorris

I know a few couples who will be receiving child benefit who have luxury cars (ie over 35k), now there is no way that their children would ever go without, so the child benefit is actually being used to fund buying a better car. Obviously this will not apply in all cases and in some it might be more on the margin (ie funding a better car/other item to a much lesser extent).

dopester

silvercar wrote: »

There are going to be admin and possibly benefit costs of the change. I hope it has been thought through.

Osbourne was saying they are going to make it a simple system - and my bet is they will deliver on that. Not some Labour pen-pusher make-jobs effort. Next stop; abolish Labour's winter fuel allowance for richo pensioners and pensioners not living in the UK. Got to wean this country off benefits.

ukcarper

carolt wrote: »

I am very strongly against, and think there will be a huge middle class blacklash against this - as Graham says, I think this will be the 10p tax rate fiasco for the Tories.

Am really angry - we will be affected, but are a long way off being 'rich'. The whole premise - that the person earning 18K shouldn't pay towards benefits for those on 50K is flawed, as that ignores the fact that the family on 18K will get:

their rent paid
tax credits of various types
council tax assistance
free medical/dental and optical care
free school lunches
free laptops
help with unfiform costs
etc etc etc

Plus will have work costs (transport, clothing etc) for only 1 person not 2, plus - most importantly of all! - have precious hours in their day to spend with their children, which a couple working and earning over 50K will not have. In practice, I would be very, very surprised if - certainly anywhere in the SE where rents are high - the take-home pay of the family on 18K weren't greater than the take-home pay of the family on 50K who aren't entitled to any benefits.

This just further decreases the incentives to go out to work, especially full-time.

Maybe I should persuade my OH now to go part-time - we're going to lose over £2250/year after tax - that is a LOT of money.

And how on earth does this tally with the Tories announcement earlier this week, that they're going to make work pay by allowing those who get a job to keep benefits? Does this mean that someone now unemployed who gets an identical job to me will keep the £2250 on top of other benefits, whilst we are punished because we've actually bothered to stay in work??? :mad:

As you can probably tell, I am REALLY, REALLY ANGRY. :mad:

It also is frankly a complete dog's dinner in terms of organisation - which idiot decided that it should be based on the income of the highest earner only? - bltant and frankly bizarre discrimination against families where one earner brings home most of the earnings - huge attack on stay-at-home mothers (or fathers) - who are already at a disadvantage in the tax-system which does not permit tax allowances to be transferred.

So much for the Tories supporting the traditional family!!

Pah. FURIOUS. :mad:

I’d argue that anybody earning over twice the mean wage is well off.