The Child Benefit Rumpus Cont.

The case against George Osborne’s plan to eliminate Child Benefit for higher-rate taxpayers runs roughly like this: We work hard, we’re successful –  in fact we pay most of the income tax collected in this country –  and we produce the children who will help pay for everyone’s pensions and now we’re the ones targetted by a Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer? Why are we being penalised for having children?

And yes, one can see why this would grate. According to this way of thinking Child Benefit is a small, but often very useful, rebate that is a kind of reward for Doing the Right Thing. It’s a thank you from the state that’s neither quite a luxury nor a necessity. Again, one can see why people would take this view. And, yes, of course a single-earner family with three kids living in London and earning £45,000 is not likely to be taking many family holidays to Tuscany.