MSE News: Are you a child benefit loser? Full Q&A

MUMZ2BEE

My ex neighbour's daughter has 12 children, the eldest being over 21.

She has not worked for 20 years; and she rakes in thousands of pounds in benefit.

I totally agree about these benefit cuts for people like this with large families who deliberately keep having children to rake in benefits.

beefturnmail

MUMZ2BEE wrote: »

My ex neighbour's daughter has 12 children, the eldest being over 21.

She has not worked for 20 years; and she rakes in thousands of pounds in benefit.

I totally agree about these benefit cuts for people like this with large families who deliberately keep having children to rake in benefits.

But she will still get the child benefit as she doesn't earn over £50k. The people who are affected are those trying to do the right thing and juggle earning a living with being a parent, rather than those living off the state. It's not the rich who are affected either. £50k in London with two children does not make you rich, trust me.

kessington

utterly depressed by the expensive bureaucracy this must involve. when our son died and we were claiming child tax credits it took 3 formal complaints, 2 interventions from our MP and a letter from me published in the Guardian for HMRC to get the payments right - 3 YEARS later. keep ALL the paperwork people - I can't believe they have the systems in place to make this work.

Cazza1234

beefturnmail wrote: »

But she will still get the child benefit as she doesn't earn over £50k. The people who are affected are those trying to do the right thing and juggle earning a living with being a parent, rather than those living off the state. It's not the rich who are affected either. £50k in London with two children does not make you rich, trust me.

Exactly (and not just London) - if you're paying significant amounts in childcare costs just to go to work then you are probably earning less than the minimum wage when all said and done. The child benefit goes a little way to making the exhorbitant cost a little more bearable.

I appreciate that cuts have to be made, but I think they are inadvertently encouraging higher earners to not return to work. I've seriously had to think about whether it was financially viable to return to work with having 2 children in full time nursery.

julie2710

Cazza1234 wrote: »

Just one more reason to prevent people from returning to work after having a baby.

In order to pay for 2 children to be full time in nursery I'm looking at £2k/month which means clearing £40k just to pay childcare costs and break even. If they have to cut it, then I think the child benefit should be taken away from parents who have children over 5 (as they'll be in school then and therefore no nursery fees) and perhaps in the higher tax bracket?

In an ideal world stopping child benefit at 5 when a child goes to school sounds like a good idea. In the real world where single parents work full time and in my case need to be on my way to work by 8:15am and return home for 5:30 I am unable to find a state school that operates such hours! This means additional costs of pre and after school care, which ironically amounted to more than the cost of private schooling which incorporate these hours in the fees!!:eek:

So £4K every 12 weeks to cover schooling/childcare before I start on my mortgage and bills etc and suprisingly my just over £50K which will include the P11d value of my company car hardly makes me well off!

Buffoons who clearly need to take a long look at their basic mathmatics skills in charge of the country in my view!

MissMoneypenny

It wouldn't suprise me if this was the beginning of the end for Child Benefit. We have Tax Credits now (soon to be part of Universal Credit) for those that can't/won't pay for themselves or their family.

Child Benefit can be paid for children that don't live in the UK, but I don't think UC will allow this?

aric

I feel that the upcoming changes to child benefit are not being fairly implemented. I earn just over £60k a year and my wife hasn't worked for six years since the arrival of our first child and subsquent arrival of our second child two years later.

We made a decision for my wife to not to go back into employement and to look after our children with the understanding that we would receive child benefit.

I have been in constant employment since leaving school and made significant tax and NI contributions as has my wife who was in constant employment from leaving school until our first child arrived.

We do not receive any benefits from the state aside from child benefit and with the rising costs of energy, food, petrol etc. losing child benefit will hit us as we are just about making ends meet at present.

It is frustrating that two working parents who earn £100k between them will still receive child benefit but as I am earning just over £60k we will lose it all.

Recent news articles are stating that the planned changes could be challenged in court... is anyone actually doing this as I would add my support.

rich189

Say I earn £52,900 but use a salary sacrifice scheme for childcare vouchers resulting in a £2,916 reduction in pay. My earnings would now be £49,984 so I would not need to start a tax return or lose any of my family allowance.

And so when the salary increases next year, provided I scarifice the increase in to my pension I should shill be able to dodge all this aggro.

Can anyone confirm if my thinking is correct?

Cazza1234

julie2710 wrote: »

In an ideal world stopping child benefit at 5 when a child goes to school sounds like a good idea. In the real world where single parents work full time and in my case need to be on my way to work by 8:15am and return home for 5:30 I am unable to find a state school that operates such hours! This means additional costs of pre and after school care, which ironically amounted to more than the cost of private schooling which incorporate these hours in the fees!!:eek:

I'm with you on that one! Our local schools operate 9-3. I'm sure I was at school longer than that - no wonder they don't have enough time to cover everything these days! I don't know any full time jobs that support those hours.

Perhaps if they created free nursery places (creating jobs) for children over 1 and free before/after school clubs for older children (encouraging people to work) then I wouldn't mind them scrapping the child benefit.

JimmyTheWig

rich189 wrote: »

Say I earn £52,900 but use a salary sacrifice scheme for childcare vouchers resulting in a £2,916 reduction in pay. My earnings would now be £49,984 so I would not need to start a tax return or lose any of my family allowance.

And so when the salary increases next year, provided I scarifice the increase in to my pension I should shill be able to dodge all this aggro.

Can anyone confirm if my thinking is correct?

Absolutely correct, as far as I am concerned.