Child benefit overhaul could save parents £1,500 year if Tories win election
Families could save £1,500 a year under Tory plans
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Changes to child benefit could lead to sizable savings for working families across the UK but only if the Conservative Party win the next General Election on July 4.
The Tories are promising to double the benefit's pay threshold for when Britons begin to be taxed which lead to households saving £1,500 a year.
Ahead of voters heading to the polls, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is attempting to hit Labour on the opposition's party's taxation record and entice families to voter Conservative.
Under the proposed overhaul, the child benefit threshold will be applicable to entire households instead of individuals.
Furthermore, taxpayers would get at level of child benefit on incomes up to £160,000 in a boon for high earners.
The doubling of the child benefit would provide some level of social security to the top 20 per cent of earners at a time when the Government has promised to clampdown on tax avoidance and benefits fraud.
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Rishi Sunak is attempting to woo voters with young children before polling day
PAAs it stands, someone's weekly child benefit payment is gradually reduced when one parent in the household earns £50,000.
The benefit is completely wiped out once a parent starts earning £60,000 or more.
During the Spring Budget earlier this year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed the threshold would be raised to £60,000, with the taper being hiked to slowly up to £80,000.
Under this latest proposal, child benefit will continue to be paid at full from £60,000 but will begin to be tapered for households earning £120,000.
Currently, thresholds are applicable to individuals under existing child benefit rules.
For example, if two parents earn £49,000 each, they would still receive full child child benefit.
This is despite the fact the household has a combined income of £98,000 which is significantly higher than the existing threshold.
However, a household with only one income of £60,000 coming in would get nothing in child benefit.
According to the Conservatives, the changes to the benefit will cost the taxpayer £1.3billion annually by 2029-30.
This would reportedly benefit 700,000 families which will lead to a saving worth £1,500 a year.
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Parents could fill National Insurance record gaps via Child Benefit GETTYEarlier this week, Jeremy Hunt said: “Raising the next generation is the most important job any of us can do so it’s right that, as part of our clear plan to bring taxes down, we are reducing the burden on working families.
However, other political parties have called out this child benefit proposal as "desperate".
A Labour spokesperson described it as "another chaotic scattergun announcement from Rishi Sunak, adding to his list of desperate and unfunded policies that he knows can’t be delivered”.
Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesperson, said: “These Conservative tax policies aren’t worth the paper they are written on after years of hiking taxes on hard-working families.”