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Child Benefit Farce
Comments
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It's ok, I will just laugh a little bit more inside at poor people, especially ones selling the big issue.0
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Any cut in middle class welfare is a good thing IMHO. It's just giving with one hand and taking with the other.
And yet millionaire pensioners are still getting a winter fuel allowance and free buss pass. I don't mind taking a hit, as long as we are all being treated fairly, which clearly is not the case. Those in the middle are being squeezed to benefit the rich and the poor. I expected better from the Tories.0 -
chewmylegoff wrote: »all i can hear is "i want my benefits back waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"
not benefits - tax. some of the huge amount I pay in tax back.
you hear what you like, once again you are wrong.
let me say it again, just because you have proved yourself immensely stupid - I DO NOT CARE, AND IN FACT WOULD PREFER IF THEY JUST STOPPED CB ALTOGETHER. What I don't like is the imbecilic way they have chosen to deal with it. If you can't see the stupidity of it, congratulations, you're a true moron.0 -
basically the issue is that benefits for all, like child allowance, whilst expensive and go to the undeserving, do not creat a disincentive to work
means tested benefits whilst costing a lot less, do of course create disincentives to work.
All benefits are disincentives to work to some degree - if I get £80/ month CB that's £80 I don't need to earn.
I get the point. Question is though - where should that high marginal tax rate be placed? It seems like a secondary question though because if that benefit isn't needed why should it be paid regardless.0 -
All benefits are disincentives to work to some degree - if I get £80/ month CB that's £80 I don't need to earn.
I get the point. Question is though - where should that high marginal tax rate be placed? It seems like a secondary question though because if that benefit isn't needed why should it be paid regardless.
I would distinguish the payment of a flat rate 'disincentive', to one where you may pay over 100% deductions (the original CB proposal).
I wouldn't call the general disincentive to work caused by means testing a 'secondary' question; indeed I see it as a major problem of our time where we are actively encouraging ghettos where some people will never work nor will their children.
In this particular case of CB, it's unlikely that a cutoff around 50k will have any real disincentive effect although will offer lots of scope for creative accounting.0 -
The_White_Horse wrote: »not benefits - tax. some of the huge amount I pay in tax back.
you hear what you like, once again you are wrong.
let me say it again, just because you have proved yourself immensely stupid - I DO NOT CARE, AND IN FACT WOULD PREFER IF THEY JUST STOPPED CB ALTOGETHER. What I don't like is the imbecilic way they have chosen to deal with it. If you can't see the stupidity of it, congratulations, you're a true moron.
Whilst the content most of your posts are verging on imbecilic I do happen to agree with you on this one.:o"If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
And yet millionaire pensioners are still getting a winter fuel allowance and free buss pass. I don't mind taking a hit, as long as we are all being treated fairly, which clearly is not the case. Those in the middle are being squeezed to benefit the rich and the poor. I expected better from the Tories.
I agree with you that this change is cack-handed but I am sure there are many more CB claimants than millionaire pensioners entitled to claim their universal benefits. I am sure that many just don't bother.
Furthermore I really don't see many wanting to step foot on "pleb" transport (outside London)."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
And yet millionaire pensioners are still getting a winter fuel allowance and free buss pass. I don't mind taking a hit, as long as we are all being treated fairly, which clearly is not the case. Those in the middle are being squeezed to benefit the rich and the poor. I expected better from the Tories.
... not to mention the £10 Christmas Bonus.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen State Pensions frozen for a couple of years (or as long as necessary) - along with other benefits.
I'm pretty sure that the 'squeezing' of the middle earners comes from below rather than above. In other words the cost of these non-means tested benefits to high earners is relatively trivial compared to the huge cost of ramping up income to the unemployed, or lower paid.
It is, I believe, a sad indictment of our system when a prime wage earner, in a household with kids and non working partner, who earns more than average wage, can command very substantial benefits depending upon the rent they pay, and the number of kids they have.0 -
I suspect that this rather half-baked action is just phase 1 of a process of eliminating child allowance for all but the most deserving. The 'hard done by' people are all on incomes significantly above average so won't muster much sympathy, and better to be seen to do something quickly than agonise about it ad infinitum. Given more time the administrative requirements will be resolved and I would expect that sometime down the road no households with above average income will get child allowance The yummy mummys will just have to find another way to fund their pinot grigio, nail jobs, designer shoes, and girlie spa breaks.No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well.
The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.
Margaret Thatcher0 -
I wouldn't call the general disincentive to work caused by means testing a 'secondary' question; indeed I see it as a major problem of our time where we are actively encouraging ghettos where some people will never work nor will their children.
In this particular case of CB, it's unlikely that a cutoff around 50k will have any real disincentive effect although will offer lots of scope for creative accounting.
Should people who don't need CB be getting it? If they don't then it should be stopped - in this context disincentives are secondary.
Means testing seems like a sensible way to identify those most in need. I don't see how that's responsible for causing inter-generation worklessness - arguably that's because benefits are over-generous in some cases. Say there's an odd marginal tax rate of 75% somewhere but you really need the remaining 25% what's the correct course of action?0
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