MSE News: Higher rate tax payers to lose child benefit

Jeff_Bridges_hair

jlpike wrote: »

I dont rely on it. I live in a very basic house worth just over 100k. I do not go on expensive holidays. I have virtually no debts other than a very small mortgage.

We delibereately did not stretch ourselves when others have so we could look after our kids properly. I will not be starving should HMRC take £140 per month away from me but if someone offered you £140 extra a month would you say no. Of course not!

It should not affect me anyway even if they proceed as they have suggested as I will pay a little extra into my pension to make sure I am under 40% as I am only just over it.

And no doubt that will make me a fat cat tax dodger:j

So why were you moaning in your other posts about it being taken away then?

Aidy

SurfBowlSC wrote: »

Our benefit grabbing "separated", mother of 4 neighbour seems to have plenty of money for weekends out in London (she staggered home at 4 am yesterday).

Perhaps she is out 'earning' rather than spending

hiney777

2010 wrote: »

The minimum wage is a tad under £6 an hour, which equates to £12,480 a YEAR for a £40 hour week.

Maybe this should be the benchmark for CB to be assessed and all the £20k/£30k/£40k plus earners worrying how they`re going to manage should take a long hard look at themselves.

Years ago school uniforms could only be bought at certain shops and cost a fortune.
Now for a tenner you can go to Tesco and get the whole lot.

If people actually spent their CB on the children then I could maybe understand what the fuss is all about.
Most of the money goes on anything/everything EXCEPT the kids.

If people on other benefits can spend their benefits on anything they like (alcohol, cigs, holidays, etc), why do you think you have the right to tell people how to spend there cb. maybe they should stop giving cash and give vouchers for clothes and a nutritional food box for each member of the family(this might also help with the health of the nation) If they want drinks and fags why should I pay, get a job to pay for luxuries

school uniform= 5 polo shirts with school logo on £60,
1 blazer with logo £40, 3 sweetshirts with logo £40 and then trousers, shoes, pe kit. If the kids dont wear tops with a logo on they are sent home.

Aidy

itsgottogetbetter wrote: »

Whilst i agree that child benefit is not a right. why do some people on here think that CB is an incentive to "breed" and "over-populate"!!

Here's part of the problem - feral unemployed teenagers having children, partial through ignorance and boredom, and partially in order to get housing benefit and child benefit.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7052513.ece

There is also a high proportion of new births in the UK, to mothers born outside of the UK. This is a symptom of the UK being a soft touch on immigration and being an attractive place to live, based on our benefits system.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/births0810.pdf

Births to mothers born outside the United Kingdom (UK) accounted for nearly a quarter (24.7 per cent) of all live births in 2009. This has increased since 2008, when it was 24.1 per cent.

jlpike

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

So why were you moaning in your other posts about it being taken away then?

Because it is a stupid decision. Lets say I earn £43874 i.e £1 under the upper rate threshold and lets say I have 3 kids therfore I will get £2500 in CB. As I am on the verge of 40% and the £2500 is tax free it is like £5000 in extra salary.

Every £1 I earn from then on in a pay rise or bonus etc I will get 50p as I will be taxed at 40% + national Insurance but I will lose all of my Child Benefit. So I get a £1 pay rise and lose teh equivilent of £5000 salary.


Therfore there is no point in me getting a pay rise unless it is over £5000. Therefore

• If I am a salesman why would I do a great job and get a bonus for selling losts of stuff and keeping my fellow employees in a job - I will be worse off!
• If i design stuff why would go work 15 hour days to design something that will make my company lots of money, employ lot of people and got lots of extra tax for the country. unless I get over £5000 pay rise or bonus im worse off.
• Why would I think of a way to save my company thousands and be more productive exporting into europe and making lots of tax for the country. I will not benefit unless I get over £5000

I know people will say you should do that anyway as it is your job and professional pride will to some extent kick in but there is little incentive to go above and beyond and it will be the county that loses out.

Therfore companies will suffer, employ less people, pay less in corporation tax NI and personal tax and the country is worse off.

That is why it is a stupid decision. If I get a 2.5% pay rise every year for 5 years to be the same off as I am now and between years 1-5 I will be worse off.

That cant be right!

I also moaned about 10 p tax debarcle as it was wrong even though I was around £10 better off per month.

koolkid

We will be loosing out on CB

We will have to make cuts but we'll survive- to be honest I was naive when I was pg and didn't even think we'd get CB due to my husbands earnings. So really I agree we shouldn't get it.

However, what bugs me is:

a) the fact it goes on individual earnings not household

b) I thought the conservatives were all for family; If reading this thread is anything like a sample of public viewpoints I wonder how many people willl 'split up' to play the system???

c) As a middle-high income family you just feel like the dogs are at your ankles all time. We've lost CB fair enough but we have no guarantees tax won't be increasing between now and 2013 too. Given my husband is out of the country at least a third of the year working and we've already been considering emigrating as we've been given the option I just wonder how much more we will give give give before we give up and leave- if we're saying that how many more will? TBH my husband is skilled but not like a doctor- I worry that we will loose people like this from our country.

d) We're planning having another child. We've waited 3 years before as finances wouldn't allow us to bring up another child the way we wanted to. Absolutely fine with us but what is annoying is the perception we (and I'm sure others have) that other families just think 'oooh let's have a(nother) baby' without truly looking if they can afford one because for the most part that is taken care for them or they just have one and then thinks the whole world is responsible for little Jonny having an Xbox/ Wii/ Designer trainers etc.

KKx

dazza.mk

Looks like panics broken out! - BBC have posted the below, that they'll potentially mitigate some of the imapct on one earner family's effected by use of a Married Couple's Allowance.

Not sure how they'll work it so those above the threshold don't suffer the full hit and all others are not better off thjough!

Update 1310: Policy is already being clarified. There will be a tax break for married couples introduced in this Parliament.
Although Tory policy was to limit the proposal to basic-rate tax payers, it has been drawn to my attention that the coalition agreement did not repeat that. The implication is, therefore, that the chancellor might seek to partially compensate some of the stay-at-home mums who feel aggrieved by the child benefit cut.

Watch this space.

Hopejack

Well, I for one don't want to wait around to 'see what happens' in my opinion they've already reneged on the pre election promise to keep it universal for all. So, what's the best way to fight this stupid new idea - I'm really surprised Martin isn't getting involved here?!? It's just ludicrous.

I really thought the Tories were all for 'family values' and rewarding a parent for staying at home while children/child was small - obviously not. David Cameron should be hanging his head in shame today for what they've announced. It is just downright unfair and ill thought out - I think that is many people's opinion of it - children or not.

Is it a case of writing to our local MP? Anything else we can do? Anywhere we can get together and start a campaign? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for changes to CB, but do it on the household income, not just one earner.

jlpike

Hopejack wrote: »

Well, I for one don't want to wait around to 'see what happens' in my opinion they've already reneged on the pre election promise to keep it universal for all. So, what's the best way to fight this stupid new idea - I'm really surprised Martin isn't getting involved here?!? It's just ludicrous.

I really thought the Tories were all for 'family values' and rewarding a parent for staying at home while children/child was small - obviously not. David Cameron should be hanging his head in shame today for what they've announced. It is just downright unfair and ill thought out - I think that is many people's opinion of it - children or not.

Is it a case of writing to our local MP? Anything else we can do? Anywhere we can get together and start a campaign? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for changes to CB, but do it on the household income, not just one earner.

I would not be suprised if they give the same amount back for married couples thus ensuring the moral fibre of the country.;) Or even better give tranferable tax allowances to a spouse. This I would imagine will go down very well in middle England.

I can't believe thay have not thought this through. You would think someone in HMRC would understand the consequences of this or more likely they do and this is the tip of an iceberg and there is much more to come and will be fed into the media over the next few weeks.

If this is it then god help us the country is run by idiots. Persoanlly I think they know exactly what they are doing. Watch this space for the next announcement.

Hopejack

I always wondered if George Osborne came out top of his maths class - I very much doubt it, the man is a fool! Honestly, other European leaders must be laughing at what he announced last night, perhaps David Cameron didn't read Ossie's speech before he gave it - I'm really hoping so as clearly it was going to be a huge bone of contention.

What did make me laugh was the BBC news reporting that David Cameron would lose his benefit too - shame, he's only on £140k ish, so it's going to be a huge blow to him. Try someone on £44.5k, clearly it's more of a loss for them.

Honestly, if this the start of the half cocked ideas they are bringing forward for the new welfare state then I really am worried for everyone.