What should the tories do about child benefit?

[Bill E Bee]

Blind yourself and you get half-price tv licence too.

[Mathilda Rose K]

I think ADHD's good for a few quid and less drastic. Imagine this might help with the claim :

2 litre bottles Pepsi Regular, Max or Diet and 7up Lemon and Lime Now 89p at Lidl from Thursday - Hot UK Deals

[Carinne B]

Compulsory reversible birth control.
To have it reversed, a couple must convince a panel that they have the means to provide for a child (parenting aptitude, maturity, security/projected income) and suitability (health, dependencies).
Then it be reapplied and future pregnancies subject to reassessment.

[alliestrawberrymelon]

I am fully in favour of child credits but i think it need to be in two banRAB , the lowest paid receiving a larger amount than those above them so that no couple with kiRAB falls below a certain income level, say 25k.Going up the income level the credit should markedly reduce so that basically we dont end up with much difference in income

[Shatter O]

So basically what you are saying is working people should get less than those on benefits considering that limit is set at £26k.

To me that is exactly why it should be added to tax credits and voila the lower paid will get more and those earning above a certain amount don't get anything.

[teddyboy]

Means testing of benefits is usually complicated and expensive to administer.

Simply leave it as it is and then tax it back off higher earners.

The problem with having diminishing levels of benefits depending on what you earn is that it can discourage people from trying to better their situation.

Take an average family, two parents two children.

Now with the current tax situation it doesn't really matter all that much what they earn between approx £15,000 and £30,000 because of the way the child tax credit system works.

I forget the exact sum, but at some point above £15,000 you start losing tax credits at a rate of 41p in the pound.

So for every pound earned above approx £15,000 they lose 41p in tax credits, 12p national insurance, 20p income tax, an effective tax rate of 73p in the pound.

If in a couple of years time we are talking about the same family but one has recently graduated and has a large student loan then once he/she gets above £21,000 he/she will lose a further 9p in the pound making an effective tax rate of 82p in the pound.

If any extra income they may accrue as a family involves any extra travelling or childcare costs then there is no net gain at all.

It could well be argued by those without children that this family was lucky to get tax credits in the first place, but it is also clear that whilst they do the system completely discourages them from trying to earn more money and better their situation.

[John Bradley]

If somebodys already claiming child tax credit, all somebody would have to do is add child benefit to that figure. It's not in my mind complicated to simply add £20 a week first child, £14 a week 2+ children to an existing child tax credit amount.

The means testing has effectively been done for you via the child tax credit claim. That's why it's so confusing to me why the government took the original decision it did, when there was already a means tested benefit that it could work with for finding accurate family income.