Child Benefit
The treasury proposals to cut child benefit seem unfair to me, and may be counter-productive in the long run. Our youngest child turned 19 this month, but if this had happened 10 years ago we would have lost the benefit on 4 children, all because I have a decent job.
It appears that we will have a situation that a single parent earning £50k (or a family with one parent looking after children full time) would lose benefit, but two parents earning £25k each would not. How is that fair?
With the cost of raising children increasing year on year (especially in terms of education), this seems like a real vote loser to me.
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Call me old fashioned if you will, but I'm very much of the opinion that if a couple decide to have children then they should figure out the finances to raise them themselves. If they're relying on other people to fund their children then things are not good at all.
So yes, this isn't fair, but neither is it fair for the childless to fund those with children through the benefit system.
"Tough but fair" was the way that George Osbourne described it.
What a load of rubbish. Another stealth tax on middle England and those who have decided to make the effort to get on with their careers rather than sponge of the state.
By the way Wayne I think we all pay for things via our taxes that we don't want or agree with. I pay for smokers to be treated on the NHS even though I don't smoke; I'm not a Roman Catholic but contributed to the Pope's recent visit; my house has never caught fire but I still pay towards the operation of the fire service...the list could go on.
Interestingly, and maybe for the first time ever, I am in agreement here but do get the point that it should be a total earnings ceiling and not a single earner ceiling.
What I am suspecting here though is that this is a clever marketing approach whereby they seemingly target the "high earners" whom the majority of the populus don't really lose sleep over. The real message though around this "nobody should be better off on benefits than in work" is going to be to cut the benefits not increase them to marginal cases.
Reminds me of the late great Milton Friedman
I see now though that Cameron wants to give this money back via some other tax credit. What a blooming fudge. No wonder the whole tax system is so complicated.
I had no idea that having kids was so lucrative. Might have to get knocked up. Any takers?
Mike
"The great" Milt Friedman ???? Is this the same guy that created the economic model that is now defunct, discredited and caused misery on a global basis ? :-)
You are spot on in that the current govt has Friedman at the very heart of its economic policies. It is simply a continuation of the Thatcher policies based on Friedman economics and piloted in Chile under Pinochet.
The more people recognise this and look into the huge global issues it has caused the better though I suspect we have 4 more years of thinly disguised Friedman economics coming our way as the IMF, World Bank and other parts of the machine rub their hands in glee at the thought of getting another chance to play with people and countries.
His view on the types of spending is spot on though isn't it Tony?
Is enyone else getting fed up with being told that we are 'all in this together', and that those with more must 'shoulder more of the burden'?
I have just been listening to a transport spokesman telling us that rail fares should go up because ' we are all in this together' AND no single group should be exempt from the pain. I thought that most of the people in the country used trains from time to time, but perhaps I just have a narrow idea of what constitutes a group from an economic viewpoint.
Unfortunately, I seem to be lucky enough to be in most of the groups that the Treasury is targeting (with the thankful exception of motherhood). I have never been in such demand ;-(
Perhaps not surprising but this is surely to be the first of many such debates. Incapacity looks like being next.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/8054717/Millions-on-i...