Martin Lewis gives his verdict on Spring Budget 2024 and hails ‘win’ – check how much more you’ll have in your pocket
MARTIN Lewis has given his verdict on the Spring Budget 2024.
Jeremy Hunt today offered more help with child benefits to parents earning more than £50,000.
And the Money Saving Expert hailed the Chancellor's decision saying "WE GOT THE WIN ON CHILD BENEFIT!"
The 51-year-old tweeted: "Chancellor tipped me off before budget, said this was due in large to MSE/my shows campaigning all based on all those of your who messaged me to say it was the key thing to put to him."
In his Spring Budget, Hunt explained how child benefit is withdrawn when one parent earns more than £50,000 a year.
He said: "That means two parents earning £49,000 a year receive the benefit in full but a household earning a lot less than that does not if just one parent earns over £50,000.
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"Today I set out plans to end that unfairness. Doing so requires significant reform to the tax system including allowing HMRC to collect household level information.
"We will therefore consult on moving the high-income child benefit charge to a household-based system to be introduced by April 2026.
"But because that is not a quick fix, I make two changes today to make the current system fairer."
He explained: "I confirm that from this April the high-income child benefit charge threshold will be raised from £50,000 to £60,000.
"We will raise the top of the taper at which it is withdrawn to £80,000.
"That means no one earning under £60,000 will pay the charge, taking 170,000 families out of paying it altogether.
"And because of the higher taper and threshold, nearly half a million families with children will save an average of around £1,300 next year."
Before the Budget was announced, Martin tweeted that he was watching out for two specifics.
He wrote: "Will he change Child Benefit Higher Income charge (ie stop penalising single parent, single income & dominant income families).
"Will he ditch penalty for Lifetime ISA withdrawals if buying house over £450,000."
High Income Child Benefit charge
If either parent or carer starts earning over £50,000, they have to start paying the high income child benefit charge.
This means you have to pay back 1 pre cent of your child benefit for every £100 of income earned over the £50,000 threshold.
Once you reach £60,000 of yearly income you have to repay the full amount of child benefit received.
Parents have been caught out by the complicated rules and extra charge and landed with bills for thousands of pounds.
It's up to parents to notify HMRC if they are liable for the charge and they must file a self-assessment tax return to pay it.
In his letter to the Chancellor, Martin said the charge "unfairly penalises single-income families".
This is because you start to lose child benefit when one earner hits £50,000 and you lose it totally when one earner hits £60,000.
But you can have two parents earning £49,000 that won't lose it.
He added that if it was addressed in the budget, he thinks it would be a "very popular measure".
During an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Martin said the Chancellor could look at moving the thresholds to reduce the number of people impacted by the charge.
He said: "What he could do that would take many people out of it is simply increase the starting threshold and move it from £50,000 to £60,000.
"While that would not fix the unfairness, it would reduce the number of people caught by the unfairness."