So, I’ve agreed to being filmed by the BBC on Thursday for a discussion on the “squeezed middle classes”. It’s ironic because I don’t consider myself middle class. I do consider myself to be squeezed though. But does that make me the squeezed middle classes? I don’t know what it means to be middle class! Is there a definitive definition?
Anyway, the subject is going to be on the reduction and/or loss of child benefit for families where one of the parents earn over 50K per annum.
Right now, I don’t hit the threshold, through my work. But I very much hope to next year. And I don’t have a problem with our child benefit being reduced or removed completely, if it were based on household income as a couple. But it’s not. It’s going to be based on individual earnings. And that’s just not right. The reason why it’s not right is because it’s actually penalising our family for prioritising having one parent who works very long hours so that the other one can be at home, doing the school run, ferrying children to and from gym club, doing spelling test practise, reading books, and making cool stuff for show and tell.
Next year, we’d be better off financially if we didn’t commit to our children like this – and put them in before and after school clubs, or relied on other people to help us with childcare. And that just doesn’t add up for me. It isn’t right.
Of course, one of the reasons they’ve asked to interview me is because I’m actually prepared to discuss this. So many people are afraid to say that they hit the threshold – whether it’s one or both of the parents that do it because they don’t want anyone to criticise them or say that they don’t live in the real world, where it’s not an issue for most people….
I know that there are lots of people out there who would be very happy to have an income that hits the threshold. I get that. But I hope that they won’t begrudge me not being happy that my family is going to be penalised for our having one parent at home. On back of an envelope calculations, I think I’ll need to earn an additional 3.6K (gross) to generate the additional income needed to balance up the money we’ll lose, if I hit the threshold. That’s on top of working more efficiently, for more hours, to get us to that threshold in the first place!
Do you judge me for this? Do you think I’ve got my knickers in a twist over nothing?
Are you going to lose part or all of your child benefit next year? Do you think that the difficult decisions which need to be made relating to child benefit should be on household income or on a general threshold?
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