Hi.

Sorry for being a little late, but I've had a couple of busy days and late finishes.

Going back to my post (page 4), yes, the simple point that I was making is that if I we can receive child benefit when earning more than my colleague and his wife and they will have one more child, how can that be called fair?

And yes, a couple of quid a week might not seem much, but as noted- it amounts to a couple of thousand a year and I'm sure most people would not be impressed if a pay cut of this magnitude was announced.

You are right. As people who earn pretty good money, we should be able to cope without child benefit and would (if it was cancelled). The simple point is that if it is going to be cancelled, then it should be cancelled in a fair and just way.

If it is correct that the cost of means testing would cancel out the savings, then that is a fair point, but at the end of the day the government cannot stand up and claim that basing the cut on the income of a single earner is fair when clearly it isn't

It seems they're talking about making tax allowances transferrable again, which would offset the issue to some degree.

Transferable allowances are better than the married mans allowance because it was originally brought in to cover the loss of the women's earnings. Though why if a couple are both working they should benefit?