Child Benefit "trap"

[Deskdiary]

I always had a feeling this was going to catch some people out.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-6182141/Hard-working-families-hounded-pay-thousands-falling-foul-child-benefit-rules.html

The new rules introduced in 2012 were very clear so I don't have a great deal of sympathy with those that have been caught out...but my question isn't about the so-called trap.

My question is....

Can anybody please explain to me the rationale behind the scenario that a couple both earning £49,999 are entitled to the full benefit whereas a couple where only one person works but earns £60,000 is not entitled to anything? To rub salt into the wound, the person earning £60k is paying tax so the couple earning £40k more than him or her can receive child benefit.

This just strikes me as completely bananas.

[gulliver1]

" No they are not" OMG have we got another, I'm right you are wrong, just joined A/B , Help.

[Rockrose]

Excuse me, I didn't realise you had just joined AB.

[dannyk13]

Gulliver1, can you translate your post at 10.47.Gibberish.

[gulliver1]

I did not make a post at 10.47 , please do try and keep up , Danny. and stop talking Gibberish.

[dannyk13]

My typo. 10.46.

[youngmafbog]

Ignore gulliver - Troll.

IMHO child benefit should be abolished. We should not be paying people to breed and encouraging the feckless (And yes, as a Landlord and father of a daughter with such 'friends' I have seen it first hand so dont claim it doesnt happen).

[Old_Geezer]

Families with children shouldn't pay less tax nor should they get benefits for adding to the overpopulated country/world. People should earn enough to live on and have kids (2 max preferably) if they wish. It's isn't a subject for tax nor benefit and the issue goes away if a dose of sanity is applied.

[fiction-factory]

I'm not sure any couple which has a joint income of £60000 needs child benefit, but there is a debate to be had about whether child benefit should be universal/non-means tested at all or whether it should be stopped altogether for children born after a set future date. I wouldn't be surprised if the admin that was involved in adminestering this cap cancelled out a fair chunk of the savings.

[New Judge]

Back to the OP. The idea is bananas, DD. It is just one of many,many yellow, curved ideas that "government" comes up with. A child of five could see its weakness and its injustice. But a Whitehall stuffed with highly paid mandarins and ministers cannot.

[Cloverjo]

YMB
//We should not be paying people to breed and encouraging the feckless //
No one has multiple children just to get the extra £13 per child per week.
Every parent gets it below the thresholds mentioned before. We're not all feckless.

[bainbrig]

If you threw a banana to Theland, would he catch it in his hand or his foot?

[New Judge]

"Every parent gets it below the thresholds mentioned before. We're not all feckless."

Indeed not, jo, but I don't think that's what YMB was suggesting. All peas are green but not everything that's green is a pea. So, adopting the analogy, all feckless parents get CB but not everybody that gets CB is a feckless parent.

But he makes a very valid point. The country is (for various reasons) hugely over populated and an ever increasing population is unsustainable. The country needs to develop a model that does not depend on ever increasing numbers and ceasing payments to people simply on the basis that they have children would be part of that model.