Child Benefit?

averageish

I have a rather odd situation and I am hoping someone can clear this up for me. We had a visit from our assigned health visitor recently. It was the first visit as our baby is not due until December.

During our chat, she advised us to apply for Child Benefit. I gather that this is the modern equivalent of Family Allowance.

I had previously looked into this and due to our joint level of income, I determined that we did not qualify for any payment at all. Where it became strange, was that the lady insisted that no matter what our income was, we were entitled to claim the £20 odd per week.

The gov.uk site makes it clear that there is an applicable tax for "high" earners of 1% for every £100 you earn over the £50,000 limit. Yet even after showing her this, she insisted we were entitled. In fact stating that her own family was over the income limit yet still claimed the full amount.

Was I right in saying we do not qualify for it? Is my health visitor committing benefit fraud, albeit unwittingly......?!

Many thanks.

notanewuser

You can claim it whatever your income. If either of you earns more than £50k per annum individually your tax code will be altered in order to repay some/all of it.

averageish

notanewuser wrote: »

You can claim it whatever your income. If either of you earns more than £50k per annum individually your tax code will be altered in order to repay some/all of it.

Thank you for your prompt reply! Didn't expect that at this time of the morning.

So she was technically correct, despite the fact that the net result would be benefits of £0.00.

I am sure however, that she was insisting we would receive the full amount as when I asked her to explain, she said "everyone gets £20 per week" and was surprised when I showed her the gov.uk web site on the tablet.

I can see the benefit of claiming for some, as it would allow for NI contributions, yet as both my partner and I remain employed, this really has no advantage.

specialboy

Your health visitor isn't really the person to take financial advice off.

Caz3121

averageish wrote: »

I am sure however, that she was insisting we would receive the full amount as when I asked her to explain, she said "everyone gets £20 per week" and was surprised when I showed her the gov.uk web site on the tablet.

the fact she was surprised suggests she was just not aware of the recent changes the child benefit, I am not sure what benefits education health visitors get

notanewuser

It appears that the op does/did.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64133767#Comment_64133767

averageish

Very helpful, thanks everyone.

shoe*diva79

Its useful to claim because claiming it ensures your NI is kept up to date if there was a period that you were on reduced pay or unemployed whilst raising a family.

xylophone

It might be worth considering additional pension contributions.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/28/child-benefit-pension-contributions-higher-earners