Occasional Ramblings

The latest political furore is about the Conservative/LibDem coalition idea to take away child benefit from people earning more than £44,000, but i fail to see what all the fuss is about.

As i see it there is two points that those who are affected are concerned about. Why should someone who is ambitious enough to have gotten themself into a particular income bracket be penalised for doing so? And why is a single person earning over £44,000 going to be penalised while a couple earning, for example, £35,000 each ( total £70,000 ) will not be?

As usual those affected by this are blinded by their own position and thereby completely missing numerous important points.

I would ask those people who are against this policy the following question. "What make and type of car do you drive and how many holidays have you had in the last twelve months?" You can bet that to the former part of the question the answer is - in most cases - that they drive one of the more expensive makes of car and or drive a 4x4. To the latter part most will have had at least two ( sometimes three ) holidays a year.

Sadly nowadays many people think that to drive an expensive car and have expensive holidays is a right that they are entitled to rather than a luxury, particularly if their friends and/or neighbours have such a lifestyle. As such they budget not for what they can comfortably afford but for what they think they should have.

The simple answer is to drive a less expensive car and take less expensive - or fewer - holidays and then the loss of child benefit  will make no difference at all.

On the second point, the disparity between single people and couples,  i see even less for people to complain about because if you think about it this situation already exists within the tax system.  You have someone paying the higher rate of tax while two people each earning an amount below the higher tax threshold will have a combined higher income but both be paying a lower level of tax.

People should get real and budget for their income not the lifestyle that they think they should have. Doing that, policies such as this one - and other unforeseen  circumstances - would have little or no impact on their lives.