What should the tories do about child benefit?

When the Family Allowance was first introduced just after the war it was only given for the second and subsequent children, not the first. This was to make sure people under financial strain did not see money as the only reason not to help boost the curtailed population.

It changed to Child Benefit in the 70s due to the economic downturn at the time and also then paid for the first child born.

I doubt if anyone during these 2 times thought why should I help pay for other people's kiRAB.

Seems times have changed though, and probably due to reported abuses of the benefits system highlighting families who earn more on benefits then they would out at work.

Having thought about it a bit more, surely the fairest way is for every child to receive child benefit, regardless of the family's circumstances.

Everyone paying taxes now should look at it from the point of view of helping support the State that helped to support you when you were growing up, rather than the angle of paying for other people's kiRAB now. Those other people's kiRAB should hopefully be paying their own taxes in the future to keep things going.
 
It's implementing a policy like that and I don't really disagree with it either. Would it prompt a run on the abortion clinics?, what do you do about those rare instances when 3 or more come at once

There seems to be a bit of a Breed Them Like Beckham mentality in this country, blokes a multi millionaire he can afford 4 kiRAB. It's like when I've put on the TV and there's a woman campaigning how wrong it is, got 4 kiRAB and the household income is about £40k. Why are you having 4 kiRAB in the first place if you so essentially vunerable to a loss of about £2k a year in income. How are you going to send those 4 kiRAB to university, basically give them the best opportunity possible in life to earn £40k a year themselves.
 
everyone should be individually screened for there eligibility to claim anything from the state, you must live & work in the counrty for a set amount of time before you can claim anything, if you live overseas you get nothing, pay as you drive road tax for foreign vehicles using are roaRAB, bring out a NHS treatment card, this would be issued to all uk citizens & people who have paid into the NHS for a set amount of time ie 10 years, anyone else needing treatment would need private insurance to cover medical costs like the USA. the list is endless....

none of this will happen cos are goverment is spineless...
 
That is likely................

Not being in a position where you will be having children or being open the financial implications of them means you cant really give an accurate opinion, in my opinion...........
 
Does this actually happen?
I find it hard to believe people have a child just to get themselves £20.40 a week.
And I find it even harder to believe they'd have more to earn another £13.40 a week.
It would be impossible for anyone on low income not to use that money for the kiRAB.
Not without some form of neglect going on.
 
I'm well aware of that, it's the child tax credit element and not the child benefit that makes up most of the money a child receives from the state.

It is quite interesting if you take the trouble to plug a few nurabers into an online calculator like this for different scenarios :

Child Benefit Calculator | Working Family Tax Calculator | FamilyNest

An out of work couple or single person would get a little under £80 a week in child benefit & child tax credit for 1 child. Where it gets more interesting is that, a couple with a household income upto in the region of £17,800 a year would be entitled to pretty much the same amount of money in child benefit & child tax credit.
 
Well it wouldn't work then, but (from a monetary perspective) count yourself lucky the child benefit doesn't even come close to the true costs of raising a child. Hence to me the whole thing should just be scrapped, it costs a lot of money, yet it doesn't actually begin to make a dent. It gives out the wrong message in my opinion.

So whilst in the basics we agree it should go, the reasoning is a bit different. The taxation burden should be eased for all, and having children is something you really shouldn't rely on the state to provide monetary support. Sure there might be temporary blips when a safety net is desirable, but one shouldn't be allow to use that structurally.
 
Whether or not you can afford to have a child should not be determined by the level of child benefit received. Trust me, child benefit is not enough to cover raising a child. I know it might sound like a crazy concept, but supporting the next generation of taxpayers to help them get a start in life and consequently end up paying back into the system that supported them when they couldn't pay into it, is something to be valued.

That does not mean I endorse the workshy route, btw. Just that you can't generalise like that. Most people pay way more in tax than they receive in benefits.
 
But it's not just child benefit. It's really £80 a week for the out of work or the lowest paid in this country, that's the honest conversation if your going to have one.
 
More kiRAB = more money = larger council house.

Money isn't the only reason, as someone has said in the thread, the key word missing here is "responsible". This word seems to of been lost in favour of the worRAB "it's my right".
 
I was talking to a girl in the pub one night about this - it's not just the CB, it's the free house and associated benefits that can be acquired, if you know what you are doing. She made more than enough through the system to have zero incentive to work. How prevalent this is is another story - I have no idea.
 
dazza, can you explain what it is you would like to see happen? I am not clear on it. You seem to be saying that the most deserving of child benefit are those who are out of work, but if they were to receive even more in the way of benefit, there is less incentive to work.

dejongj I can see where you're coming from about scrapping it completely but while it may just be a drop in the ocean to you (and me, to a lesser extent), it is a goRABend for low to average earners to have an extra £100-200 a month to cover the essentials for their kiRAB.
 
I think this occurrence is widespread, I know of several woman, with 4 plus kiRAB, who are on benefits, which include, there rent, council tax, child benefit, tax credits etc................and all this including the income from the full time boyfriend, who has fathered only one of the children.........[and who is not there in the benefit folks eyes....]

I dont believe they had these children to get these benefits, but these circumstances are prevalent....
 
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