[Closed] Child benefit

Its supposed to be to help parents fund the new little person in thier lives, ie the Gov's contribution to ensuring they are looked after and cared for. How nice of Labour.

Its not means tested, everyone gets it. I guess if you aren't so well off you'd appreciate it.

Read into the politics as you will.

It was intended to put money directly into the hands of the mothers to prevent the situation where fathers controlled all the family money.
Personally I disagree with extra funding for children to some extent - Why do I have have to subsidise your reckless breeding? 😉

Because the 'recklessly bred' will hopefully become tax paying members of society and pay for you in your retirement perhaps? 🙂

If you can't afford to have kids...

[url] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/8041636/Child-Benefit-history.html [/url]

I am with scrapping it from a future date. So if you have it you keep it to not effect current domestic finances. No increases though.

Help to the poorest given in other ways / benefits.

I think it's so I can upgrade to XTR mechs all round rather than slumming it with XT. Plenty of good charity shops and nearly new sales around for the baby stuff 🙂

The benefit should be means tested, but not in the current proposal so including it onto one combined benefit makes sense. Like winter fuel payments to millionaires it is not wise to hand it out to everyone

The "poorest" also get child tax credits.

should be scrapped for folks with cash, my mrs and most in the school playground seem to save it for the holidays or something certainly no one has said .. oh good cb day today the kisd will be having new clothes/ steak tonight.. same as winter fuel allowance for old folk.. which retired doctor on 100k pension need 300 quid for his leccy bill.

benifits should be for those folk having hard times and trying to sort themselves out not for the rich or the poor of moldoaravia and thier extended families

The "poorest" also get child tax credits.

XTR brakes 😉

I have a couple of kids and our household is for the time being, entitled to child benefit
Do we claim it- yes
Do we really need it - no
Do I feel guilty about this - no. I pay a load of tax, and get very little else in return.

My wife and I have worked since our teenage years and always paid in to th system. I was surprised that when we had our daughter the only financial assistance we could get is family credit.. I don't see this as a benefit but more of a tax rebate.. After all we are still paying out more than we take out..

i take it that everyone who comes on here jipping about cb is fully prepared to pay back the £18000 that their parents received for [b]them[/b] throughout their childhood ?

no, thought not.

so shut your reactionary gobs.

Universal benefits mean high take up and prevent the poverty trap of high marginal tax rates at the threshold. they are also cheap to administer

its just reclaimed from richer folk in tax.

Do I feel guilty about this - no. I pay a load of tax, and get very little else in return.

Easy. You'll wake the big hitters with statements like that!

We obviously get it for our kids. It's been useful when MrsMCTD was on a career break before they started school and my below average salary didn't bring us up to proposed £26k welfare cap!

We could probably manage without it if we had to now. I doubt anyone deliberately has more kids just to have this benefit, but I think it should probably be restricted so it is only paid for the first one or two kids.

All those that feel that children aren't needed, please add your names to the list and when you are old and infirm - tough, look after yourself.

And Child Benefit/Family Allowances; one of those ground-breaking things put in place after WW2:

[i]The Family Allowances Act 1945 (8 & 9 Geo. VI c. 41) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It came into operation from August 6, 1946, and was the first law to provide child benefit in the United Kingdom.

Family allowances had been one of the items proposed by the Beveridge Report in 1942. The Labour Party briefly debated pressing for allowances during the Second World War, but a party conference resolution to this end was opposed by the trades unions for fear that the amount paid would be taken into account in wage negotiations, leaving workers no better off.

As passed, the Act empowered the Minister of National Insurance to pay an allowance of five shillings per week for each child in a family other than the eldest; later Acts increased this sum. It was payable whilst the child was of school age, up to the age of eighteen, if apprenticed or in full-time school education.[/i]