PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Child Benefit (1 March 2022)

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will take steps to reduce the administrative steps involved in assessing child benefit by household income to ensure that families in (a) Ashfield and (b) the UK receive the support they need.

Asked by:
Lee Anderson (Reform UK)

The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) was introduced in January 2013 to target support at those who need it most. It applies to anyone with an income over £50,000 who claims Child Benefit or whose partner claims it. The charge is tapered for taxpayers with incomes between £50,000 and £60,000. Where income is over £60,000, the amount of the charge is equal to the Child Benefit payments. Families where at least one taxpayer has an income over £50,000 can opt out of getting Child Benefit payments, which means they do not have to pay the charge.

The HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other Income Tax policy. Basing HICBC on household income would mean finding out the incomes of every person in the 7.8 million households currently registered for Child Benefit. This would effectively introduce a new means test, which would be costly to administer and create burdens on most families who receive Child Benefit.

Answered by:
Lucy Frazer (Conservative)
9 March 2022