Why do we pay child benefits at all?

[Tipex]

I dont agree with scrapping it, but i do think it needs looking at. Have you seen those wasters on jeremy kyle? they dont want kids, they just have unprotected sex and let everyone else worry about paying for them!

[Halibut]

I dont agree with scrapping it, but i do think it needs looking at. Have you seen those wasters on jeremy kyle? they dont want kids, they just have unprotected sex and let everyone else worry about paying for them!

 

Hook, line and sinker. Well done.

[matsalleh]

Maybe a limit of only paying for 2 children,phased in over 12 months?

[HeadingNorth]

Maybe a limit of only paying for 2 children,phased in over 12 months?

 

Same problem still applies. If someone then has a third child, how do you avoid penalising the child, who has not done anything wrong?

[EmilyM]

What if someone had one child, then had twins? They've only planned to have 2 children.

[espadrille]

I don't think child benefit should be stopped. Its one of the few universal benefits that isn't means tested. Means testing to the 'nth' degree must cost a fortune in administration. It would be much easier to pay people a standard pension, or a decent disability benefit and take back any excess from those with high incomes through the tax system.

 

What a fiasco for some families - the government takes income tax with one hand, and then, the family has to complete a complex application to get some or all, or even more, back. Then the government, through a different calculation, has to work out how much CTC or WTC the same family is entitled to - and its often wrong. Raising the tax threshold could increase the take home pay for the lowest earners at a stroke, and is extremely simple to apply. Just a change in tax code.

 

And we are now going to get it!!!, (the tax threshold raised I mean)

[Cyclone]

Instead of means testing, why not increase the tax allowance of parents. No need to administer CTB, no need to means test anyone and the end result is the same.

The only fly in the ointment is those who don't pay any tax because they don't work. In which case some sort of modification to job seekers allowance for parents, which still requires minimal admin and no means testing would need to exist.

 

The way we tax with one hand and give it back with the other is hugely inefficient.

 

Edit - I see that MsMacbeth has already said much the same (and I think we've both said it before).

[eastbank]

What a dreadful attitude (and a bit troll-like) ; generalising and very insullting to poor people.

 

There may be a case for targetting CB at poorer families and it is a bit strange that someone on £50k gets the same amount as someone on a low income.

 

 

my mate has four kids and runs his own business...they save theirs to take the kids to disney every year and the kids love it...

while some hard up families probably spend it on fags and booze...and the kids miss out...

[poppins]

You get paid for having children , how much ?

[Eric_Collins]

I would like a system in place that didn't reward people too idle to work and make money from spitting out kids.

 

People who have that job search thing when kids get to the age where the work shy parent/s are forced to work by the DHSS, the parent/s simply have another kid and they go back down the JSA ladder for another 5 years etc...