What do you do with your child benefit?

74jax

I got married and Hubby moved in and so we no longer get it, but before that I used it for food, to pay bills etc. I lived pay day to pay day so didn't have the luxury of saving it if you know what I mean. It was just added to my incomings.

Mrs_pbradley936

I used to (my children are adults now) save it in an endowment fund for them. It provided both of them with a deposit for their first homes. My youngest son's was £8K short of the prediction because that was in the days when they encouraged endowment mortgages but it was still over £12K.

I don't think we would get it now because we would earn too much but this was when everyone got it.

We do get the heating allowance but would be just fine without it so I think it is fair to target benefits to those in most need.

Janepig

It used to go into the general pot, joint account, but then we changed bank accounts and it ended up being the only thing going into the old account so we kept that account open and it's been useful to keep it solely for the kids. Uniforms, including shoes, Christmas, birthdays and school trips. Big spends really. And DD's phone is paid out of that account.

Jacko_amz

sorry me being a bit dumb here ( i don't have children, but planning to start soon) why do you have to pay it back? i thought it was a top up benefit?

Me and OH aren't entitled to any benefits so this won't be relevant to us but i'm just curious

jackieblack

Daughter at Uni now so don't get it any more, when I did it went into a separate account and I used it to pay for school trips, school uniform, clubs etc and then was she was older it paid for her mobile phone, college trips and travel expenses

MERFE

Ours is paid to me and goes in my bank account. My husbands wages are paid into the joint account and cover all the bills. So the tax credits and child benefit we get go on extras - clothes, shoes, school expenses, holidays, birthdays and Christmas. It's unlikely my husband will earn enough for us to worry about repaying but if he did I guess we wouldn't need it.

Mrs_pbradley936

Jacko_amz wrote: »

sorry me being a bit dumb here ( i don't have children, but planning to start soon) why do you have to pay it back? i thought it was a top up benefit?

Me and OH aren't entitled to any benefits so this won't be relevant to us but i'm just curious

It used to be "universal" in that every child was entitled to it. Now if the parents earn too much they cannot have it. I don't know how the paying it back part works but I would assume that if you have been given it but your income for the given year was higher than you expected you would have to repay it.

silvercar

Jacko_amz wrote: »

sorry me being a bit dumb here ( i don't have children, but planning to start soon) why do you have to pay it back? i thought it was a top up benefit?

Me and OH aren't entitled to any benefits so this won't be relevant to us but i'm just curious

It used to be paid for every child regardless of income as recently as 2012.

Then the rules changed and it was only paid when totally family income was below a certain level. For anyone who earned over that level, there is the option to still claim it, but to repay the amount if earnings prove to be over the limit.

lush_walrus

Prior to means testing we just added it to our children's saving accounts.

LilElvis

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

It used to be "universal" in that every child was entitled to it. Now if the parents earn too much they cannot have it. I don't know how the paying it back part works but I would assume that if you have been given it but your income for the given year was higher than you expected you would have to repay it.

You can still opt to receive and then repay it even if you know you're over the earning threshold. I've chosen to do it as, being a SAHM, my State pension rights are preserved. I don't trust DWP to get it right in twenty years time, so at least this way I have a paper trail. Plus I get an interest free loan from the government - the money I received between April 2014 and March 2015 was paid back today, a whole 3 days earlier than I needed to.

You declare it on your Self Assesment tax return.