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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2225987/Angela-Epsteins-furious-attack-Government-My-family-losing-child-benefit-just-earning-100k.html

In our house, that means our benefit payments will soon be no more than a childhood memory since my salary hovers around £50,000 and my husband’s is significantly more.

No longer eligible for the monthly payments, we will be left with the invidious choice of either giving it up completely or continuing to take the benefit and then having it clawed back from us when we fill in our tax forms for the financial year.

I understand that we are going through a time of great financial difficulty in this country and that sacrifices must be made to get us back on track.

But why should my children lose out, simply because their parents have had the temerity to work hard and earn a good living?

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I'm sorry but if both parents are earning over £50,000 a year, as in this example, I don't see why they should be entitled to child benefit of £20 a week (an extra £13 for every other child after the first). In the course of a year it amounts to just over a grand for one child, which is what they probably get in 6 months for an allowance at the public school they attend.

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I'm sorry but if both parents are earning over £50,000 a year, as in this example, I don't see why they should be entitled to child benefit of £20 a week (an extra £13 for every other child after the first). In the course of a year it amounts to just over a grand for one child, which is what they probably get in 6 months for an allowance at the public school they attend.

It's principle, innit?

Aside from all emotional arguments, on a practical level, junking child benefit is a ludicrous move. Under the new rules, two breadwinning parents who each earn £49,000 will keep all of their child benefit. But a couple, in which one person earns £60,000, lose all of theirs.

Two parents earning £49k each is a combined £98k. One parent earning £60k and the other not working is a combined £60k. Yet couple '1' still retain child benefits, despite earning more.

The argument is that it has never been a means tested benefit before (rightly or wrongly), and now that it is, the test is flawed.

Who's to say that a grand a year for one child doesn't help a family earning £60k a year?

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Who's to say that a grand a year for one child doesn't help a family earning £60k a year?

If I were pulling in £60k a year, and be offered a £1,000 per year pay rise, I sure as fuck wouldn't think to myself "Oooh, now I can afford to raise a child!"

Giving out benefits to a family who earn more than three times the minimum wage is fucking stupid, if you ask me.

xx

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It's principle, innit?

Two parents earning £49k each is a combined £98k. One parent earning £60k and the other not working is a combined £60k. Yet couple '1' still retain child benefits, despite earning more.

The argument is that it has never been a means tested benefit before (rightly or wrongly), and now that it is, the test is flawed.

Who's to say that a grand a year for one child doesn't help a family earning £60k a year?

While that example is stupid, and shows a very flawed system, neither should fucking need the child benefit.
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TBH any benefit system that has a yes/no cutoff point in salary is a fucking dumb idea. Even IF the system HAS to remain in place, it should be a gradual roll off where as your salary goes up, your benefits decrease.

And not one fucking penny should be given to families who have two parents earning minimum wage, or one parent earning 2x minimum wage. And minimum fucking wage should be enough to realistically live on.

Overly simplistic view, maybe, but it makes fucking sense doesn't it??

xx

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And minimum fucking wage should be enough to realistically live on

I, one thousand percent, disagree. Minimum wage is grim. I got a huge bollock of a paycut last year when I was a temp, from £9 per hour to £6.50. I don't even know if that is mimimum wage, but I don't think it is very far off. It crippled me. I had to sell beloved possessions like guitars and amps so I at least had something to fall back on if needed, as I didn't like living so close to the edge. I could just about afford to feed myself, and that's it. Bring more mouths to feed into the equation and it becomes even more of a struggle. I'd probably need a bigger place, so that's a much higher rent, more food and clothes to buy. I'd probably be less grippy with the heating too, so the young 'uns didn't get ill. Hypothetically, me and my missus work full time minimum wage jobs. Who's gonna take and pick up the kids from school and nursery, and look after them during half term if we're both working 8-5? Childcare costs a bomb. Minimum wage doesn't come close to covering that sort of stuff. Even if it did, that would be a miserable and difficult life, and definitely not a life I would want to give to a child.

Then again, to me there is a difference between 'living' and 'surviving'. Living wage to wage, scraping costs so you don't lose your home or get hospitalised from malnourishment certainly isn't living.

I am not against child benefit, but I'm sure alot of parents just see it as pocket money and not an allowance to buy clothes for their kids, or pay for school trips and all that stuff. It's shitty irresponsible parents I'm against. Can't we just BURN THEM ALL and send their orphan children into the navy, to protect our seas from pirates? I don't know where I'm going with this anymore.

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