Child benefit

[lynbrown]

Sorry if this has been covered before. My son earns £44K and my daughter in law earns £15K. They say they will lose the family allowance due to his earnings. But surely the allowence is paid to mothers, regardless of fathers earnings? So they earn £59K and lose money but others can earn up to £80K and retain allowence?

[sara3]

some people would think an income totalling £59k is quite a lot!

I understand that if either parent is in the higher tax bracket, they will lose the child benefit.

[lynbrown]

Its not the amount that matters, its the fairness of it, or rather the unfairness.

[redcrx]

yes, thats the way it works. Doesnt seem fair really, best way to do it would be on a combined income

[mollykins]

The same as sara. One parent can be working and earn a smidgen over the allowance and not get the money yet another family with two working parents can earn a smidgen under the amount each and still get it. It's not fair, but they've made it as simple as possible.

[society]

Molly, you are sounding like a parent, and a spouse. :-)

[mollykins]

Apparantly to employ the people to work out which families earn enough in total would cost more than it would to give it to everyone so that's why they simplified it.

[mollykins]

My dad was complaing about it not being fair . . . .

[craft1948]

My first husband earned megabucks.........I thought it was ridiculous that we qualified for child allowance.

[annie0000]

Allowance is not always paid to mothers anyway, you apply for it in either parents name. My hiuband receives it (well it goes in out joint account) as he stayed home with the kids and we needed to try to protect his NI contributions (we weren't claiming any other benefits or income for him). As the receiver of te benefit, he gets Home Responsibilities protection of his National Insurance. We both work now so it isn't as important. I agree that it isn't necessarily fair, but to do it any other way would cost more than it saves.

[joeluke]

59k per year?.....over £1,100 per week?

.....and they are whining about losing a few quid a week child benefit?

Some families earn less than a ¼ of that high income per annum, they are the ones who really NEED child benefit

[anneasquith]

imo, people who earn such high incomes hardly require child benefit.

[boxtops]

I heard that Princess Diana was entitled to (if not claimed) child benefit.... the ceiling has to be set somewhere, someone will always be just over whatever limit is set.

[wilkesneil]

joeluke - 100% agree with ya.
£59k a year is a hell of a lot of money to have each week/month.
whatever the child benefit is it's not going to actually be needed for anything really as there is sufficient funds at hand.

[boxtops]

The trouble is, however much you earn, you commit it. I bet a person earning that much has a very substantial mortgage or other commitments to service each month.

[wilkesneil]

boxtops, i know people do this and people are always on about it, living upto their max budget. spending out etc...
but at the end of the day no-one knows whats round the corner so people on that amount of money (earnings) should be able to put some up as if anything were to happen with the job they probably wouldn't get that level of pay again.

[chattykathy]

I agree with the unfairness of it e.g two people earning £43k each will still get it! I did hear that one way of staying out of the 40% tax bracket was to put enough money in your private/company pension to get you down to the 20% bracket. You have to do the maths! Mind you, the Condems will probably change that rule as well. By the way I do agree that higher earners shouldn't get CB but I just don't think it's been done fairly like in the example above or taking into consideration how many children you have! Ridiculous!

[Sue66]

Even Wayne Rooney can claim it. And he is on £250,000 a WEEK. There has to be a limit, but of course it is unfair that one income of £44,000 a year loses out but a combined income of £80,000 keeps the allowance (if neither is over £43,000). Don't forget that someone on £44,000 pays a considerable amount of tax. Although, I wouldn't mind that income even if I had to pay the higher rate of tax.

[jaydah]

If OH can't make up loss to mother - divorce him & strip his assets !