that’s fair

so there’s a family

in that family there’s just one child and just one parent works, that parent earns 64k

0% child benefit

next door there’s another family

they too just have one child but both parents work and they both earn 32k which *grabs calculator* makes the total household income 64k

100% child benefit

wow that’s fair, well done george

p.s. can’t wait for fuel to rise to 145p a litre whoop whoop

Comments

  1. March 22, 2012 / 10:53

    just playing devils advocate (but I don’t see it as fair either and agree with you) – but if one parent works then the other is home to look after the child. If both parents work then childcare costs come in and that extra £20 a week could soften that cost. Or not. Still if our household income was 64k I don’t think I’d mind losing it. xx

    • March 22, 2012 / 12:38

      what about if the parent at home is disabled and can’t look after the child?

      and if you have two parents earning 49k each getting full whack child allowance and childcare is a grandparent picking up from school?

      so many variations the whole thing is just wrong wrong wrong.

      not to mention the lack of any changes to support working parents, flexible working hours, nurseries not signed up for 15 hour state given hours and the lack of flexibility using those 15 hours.

      phew that felt better!

  2. March 26, 2012 / 10:25

    And of course the two parents will each have their tax free allowance on their individual salaries while the single parent only gets one. They’ll also have access to two lots of £243 tax free childcare vouchers rather than just one.

    This plan with the higher cut off point and the staggered reduction at least maintains child benefit for a few more people than the original plan but ultimately the small amount the government actually saves will probably not be much more than the costs of administering this more complex system.

    I think politicians of all parties need to wake up to the fact that the long term future of our economy requires more people to both have children and work and it’s in everyone’s interest to make that possible for the widest spectrum of people. Also any money given to working parents with young kids has an additional benefit of helping the local economy because we generally spend most if not all of our income rather than saving. Thanks for linking up to the showcase.

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