What do you do with your child benefit?

Smashing

Crack & hookers.

piglet6

Hi Mrs Sparkle

I don't have direct experience of this as a parent, but as a child my mum collected my child allowance and used it until I was 16 (and I wasn't given a huge fund of cash at the age of 16, so I guess she used it for necessities each week - which I have no gripe with!!:o ). At 16, she said that I could have it each week as my pocket money (as I remember it was about 7 pounds 10 pence/20 pence, and it seemed like a lot!!:cool:), as a "reward" for staying in higher education (I was doing A-levels) - I guess my mum was ahead of the times in paying a higher education grant...we are talking about 1989!!!

Overall, I would agree with others here that you should use it to bring up your baby, so I would draw it each week/month and use it to pay for essentials as and when necessary.:rolleyes: If, in the future, you find yourself with an excess of money, then by all means pop it into a savings account for Baby Sparkle, but don't feel bad about using it if you have to...;)

Piglet

*Louise*

I get £116 every 4 weeks for the boys.

I put £15 a month each into their bank accounts, and the rest is paid into my savings account.

It adds up quite quickly, so when it comes to Christmas, family day trips, etc that is the money that gets used.

blitz

i get 163.40 for 3 lads, every 4 weeks
i save it towards holidays

JAMIEDODGER

mine goes in the family pot. then it gets used for whatever we need

pipkin71

I get £116 every four weeks for my girls and they get 25 into a savings account - the rest pays for their activities, days out etc.

Although I'm on benefits, this doesn't cause any hardship, but if it did, I would use the money on bills, food etc as that would also benefit the girls

chocaholic110

Mine goes into a separate account and I use it on whatever it's needed for at the time. Most times it is DD's dance/drama/singing school fees (don't ask!) but didn't have these to pay in December so paid £100 off DS's school trip to Germany in 2007.

So we don't really save it for them but they do get the benefit.

I wouldn't have a problem at all though in anyone using it to live on.

My Mum starter giving me mine when I was 16 (again in Higher education) - ashamed to say I used a good chunk of the £8 at the pub on a Friday night - amazing to think we could have drinks, chips and busfare home and still have change!

Ali-OK

Mine goes into the pot with tax credit and is sucked up by After School Club fees each month because I work f/t (no choice). But I do have a Baby Bond for him that is £17.50 per month, so he'll have a lump sum when it matures at his 16th birthday.

He's already got @ £2K in his bank account just from birthdays and Xmas money and we've never needed to touch this.

HokeyCokey_3

Child Benefit is paid to the parents, not the child, so really it's to assist the parents in bringing up their children financially. Putting some (if not all) of the money towards savings for the childs future is a lovely gesture...if you can afford it.

However, most kids have Child Trust Funds nowadays, don't they? Also kids have far too many presents for birthdays and christmas ...perhaps a contribution to their Trust Fund would be a nicer idea. Plus this will teach the child to save and they will actually see where the money has come from...rather than being handed a lump sum from nowhere.

Ali-OK

HokeyCokey wrote:

However, most kids have Child Trust Funds nowadays, don't they? Also kids have far too many presents for birthdays and christmas ...perhaps a contribution to their Trust Fund would be a nicer idea. Plus this will teach the child to save and they will actually see where the money has come from...rather than being handed a lump sum from nowhere.

I see your point re: the lump sum, however, I don't intend to give it to him to spend as he pleases. It will be either to help Uni costs (if he goes), help towards a car, maybe even as part of a deposit for a home. These are things that my parents couldn't help me with and I'd like to do for him.

He is using his £2 p/w pocket-money from grandparents to learn how to save, as it's visual and kept in a piggy-bank at home.

He doesn't have a trust-fund as he was born in 2000, and I think that started in 2002.