MSE News: 'Re-think' over child benefit changes

Chomeur

Case_Closed wrote: »

I think I must be the squeezed middle!!

As I say, you might be better off baking cakes.

zonecrew

I will be watching the budget with great interest in two weeks time. I have earned between 45k and 50k this year but believe me i've worked for it (most weeks put in between 60 and 70 hours a week!)

i've done this to support my wife and three kids, she is currently at college in the hope to do a uni degree this year. believe me, we are far from well off and find it tough to get by month-by-month. to have this taken off us next year will be extremely hard to take. I know for sure that my overtime will be nowhere near what its been this year for starters. The thing that makes me mad is the unfairness of it all, why punish single-parents, stay at home parents or those who simply want to do the best for their futures?! Plus, eighteen months or so ago when this was mooted, the info that I seen was that it was due to start in 2013, which led me to believe that the 2012/13 tax figures would be used (as you would expect) it was only just after xmas that I found out that it would be this years tax figures, this gave me little time to adjust my hours to try and get below the top tax bracket! :mad:

ejc81

cw18 wrote: »

I believe the fairest way is to merge it with tax credits if they want to means test it.

Tax Credits is based on household income, so this would get rid of the issue where a 'high earning' single parent who's just above the cap would lose it but a couple who earn just a bit less each wouldn't (and as such would have almost twice the income plus child benefit)

So what if it means they have to reinstate Tax Credits to some people they've just kicked out of the system - in theory all they'd qualify for would be the Child Benefit amount, and the government have to pay adminstration costs to get that to them one way or another.......

I totally agree with this. Surely it would save £££££'s in administration costs if there was only one system instead of two. I don't see the point in having child benefit now that there are child tax credits. Tax credits are already means tested so it wouldn't cost anything more in administration. Why not just add a child benefit element to tax credits, at the same rate as child benefit is currently, and then cap it at household income of £50,000. At least that way it would be fair to all households.

Chomeur

OMG, you can get childcare tax credits as well! It's mad.

Kitten-B

zonecrew wrote: »

I will be watching the budget with great interest in two weeks time. I have earned between 45k and 50k this year but believe me i've worked for it (most weeks put in between 60 and 70 hours a week!)

i've done this to support my wife and three kids, she is currently at college in the hope to do a uni degree this year. believe me, we are far from well off and find it tough to get by month-by-month. to have this taken off us next year will be extremely hard to take. I know for sure that my overtime will be nowhere near what its been this year for starters. The thing that makes me mad is the unfairness of it all, why punish single-parents, stay at home parents or those who simply want to do the best for their futures?! Plus, eighteen months or so ago when this was mooted, the info that I seen was that it was due to start in 2013, which led me to believe that the 2012/13 tax figures would be used (as you would expect) it was only just after xmas that I found out that it would be this years tax figures, this gave me little time to adjust my hours to try and get below the top tax bracket! :mad:

Can i ask where have you read that 2011/12 income will be used in determining this? Nothing has been enacted and the changes are still in the proposal stage - I find it hard to believe that anything has been set down about this.

Even it had I find it equally hard to believe that 2011/12 income would be used. I would expect that it will be based on estimated income for the year (ie: starting 2013/14) and may exclude overtime/bonus. Something similar is being used for the withdrawal of higher rate relief to new childcare voucher scheme joiners which is about as similar a scheme administratively as you can find.

clearingout

ejc81 wrote: »

I totally agree with this. Surely it would save £££££'s in administration costs if there was only one system instead of two. I don't see the point in having child benefit now that there are child tax credits. Tax credits are already means tested so it wouldn't cost anything more in administration. Why not just add a child benefit element to tax credits, at the same rate as child benefit is currently, and then cap it at household income of £50,000. At least that way it would be fair to all households.

you'd think it would be that easy, wouldn't you? possibly the best solution to the issue. Take away everyone's child benefit (probably need to be done in batches with surnames/areas/by eldest child's date of birth...) and add it to the Tax Credit claim. How hard can it be?!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

clearingout

Chomeur wrote: »

OMG, you can get childcare tax credits as well! It's mad.

I suggest you try paying for childcare on a salary of, say, £15k a year (which is what I'm on at the moment - full time, 40 plus hours a week) and then come back and say 'it's mad'.

I don't get child maintenance from my ex husband (who chose to leave me and abandon our children in the process) and I am currently eligible for Income Support as I have a child under 2. If I had to pay full childcare on a £15k salary I couldn't work. At least this way, I am setting a good example to my children, and contributing some tax and NI to the system.

And please do not patronise me with the 'if you can't afford to have children, you shouldn't have had them'. I had 3 children by the same man in a long term relationship (first child not born until we had been together over 6 years and had a home, a buy to let property and a successful business). I could easily afford them when they were born - the eldest at the point my ex walked out was in private school which was easily paid for. The Law as it stands allows a person, like my ex husband, to abandon all responsibility towards both his wife and his children. I lost far more than I will ever really know to that man and his very clever accountant girlfriend. Rather than applaud him for avoiding child maintenance and being happy to see my 76 year old (still working) mother help financially support his children, perhaps acknowledging that:
a) family life is not a 'right' of only those who earn higher incomes;
b) people who earn lower incomes are not devoid of ambition or pride and are usually doing essential work that keeps the higher paid earners in a position to be able to do their jobs
c) not everyone who finds themselves in a difficult financial position is in that situation because they chose it - separation, divorce, abuse, accident, serious illness, redundancy can all have a major impact on a once stable 'can afford child' and push it into 'what on earth are we going to do' scenario.

wjpsmum

My main worry if this change goes ahead is how do current stay at home mums get their accrued pension years?
Currently, until your child is 11 I think, if you aren't working so you can raise your children, and get child benefit, your state pension years are added to.
If they scrap child benefit for some mothers, due to partner/husband being a higher rate tax payer, how are these years then tracked?

Hope2008

Wjpsmum - spot on. From what I can see this point has been largely overlooked. I've contacted a few different agencies over the past few months and no one seems to have a clue what will happen. It's a really important point and we need clarification.

cw18

I hadn't thought about the Home Responsibilities Protection aspect of it (I think I remember the name of it right) - and my understanding (certainly from when I claimed it) was that this was in place until your youngest turned 16.

Just Googled and found this which implies it ended at the end of the 2009/10 Tax Year, and is indeed now only applicable if you have a child under 12 - but I don't know what they officially call it these days......

But it doesn't have to be the Mum who loses out - when my hubby took voluntary redundancy we transferred Child Benefit into HIS name so that HE got the coverage. I was still working full-time and paying NI in my own right.......