What do you do with your child benefit?

matchboxfull

If you have somebody in the house earning more than £50k it's reduced by 1% for every £100 over that they earn. So if they earn £51k it's reduced by 10%. If they earn £55k it's reduced by half. If they earn £60k or more it's reduced to nothing.

But when I say 'reduced' I mean the entitlement. You have to do a tax return to calculate how much you have to repay. There is no automatic mechanism for it.

[Deleted User]

matchboxfull wrote: »

If you have somebody in the house earning more than £50k it's reduced by 1% for every £100 over that they earn. So if they earn £51k it's reduced by 10%. If they earn £55k it's reduced by half. If they earn £60k or more it's reduced to nothing.

But when I say 'reduced' I mean the entitlement. You have to do a tax return to calculate how much you have to repay. There is no automatic mechanism for it.

And it's rather annoying when you're getting the child benefit, your wife is spending it, then it turns to January and you've got to find £1000 to pay back to HMRC...

It's a very annoying mechanism

Darksparkle

ringo_24601 wrote: »

And it's rather annoying when you're getting the child benefit, your wife is spending it, then it turns to January and you've got to find £1000 to pay back to HMRC...

It's a very annoying mechanism

Quite a few people I know in this situation put it into savings so they can get the interest on it before paying it back.

Whether you "need" it or not, I definitely think you should claim it. If you don't need it for the household pot it can be saved for a child's future.

If you saved is every week from when the first is born until say 18 (although can be claimed til 20) you could have £18,000 for them for education, a car, deposit on a house etc.

I don't see it being cut to two children as they will with tax credits. I think if they were going to it would have been at the same time.

mark5

We save ours and it pays for kids Xmas ,birthday presents etc

We pay about £1000 pm in tax, NI and council tax so I don't feel guilty about claiming about £135 back.

HappyMJ

I give all of it to my child.

I then do not spend anything else on her including clothing (except essential school clothing), days out, cinema tickets, food outside of house, games, toys, toiletries (you know make-up, hair stuff etc - non essential stuff) etc.

Everything she "wants" comes out of the child benefit and everything she "needs" such as housing and food on the table comes from my income/savings/other benefits. If she "wants" something that costs more than £20 she'll have to save for it.

Even if I did not have an earned income at all spending no more than a fixed amount of £20 a week on wants allows me to use the JSA on providing food for me, the child tax credits for providing food for her and the housing benefit to provide a roof over our heads.

busiscoming2

My kids are grown up now but I used to save it between Jan and July to go towards our Summer holidays and again save it up from then to use at Christmas.

steph2901

It just goes into my account along with my pay and gets spent on bills, food, etc. I wish I could afford to save it every month though.

heuchera

I spend it on crisps, fags and booze

Tigsteroonie

Child Benefit goes into the family pot, as does my salary, Marley's carer's allowance, and littl'un's DLA. And then everything gets paid out of the family pot. I don't understand this idea of keeping it separate, then again, we don't have any money left over to save.

moomoomama27

I use ours solely on the children. It goes towards things like half term treats, days out, school trips, extra curricular activities etc
Basically the non-essential luxuries.