article_snippet.sent: More than a million households lost out when the Coalition announced that families with one parent earning £50,000 would pay tax on child benefit.
article_snippet.sent: Earners over £60,000 lost out altogether.
article_snippet.sent: The controversial measure, brought in two and a half years ago as part of the Government’s austerity programme, was criticised for penalising single-earner families and stay-at-home mothers.
article_snippet.sent: It meant anyone earning less than £50,000 – even a couple on £49,000 each - still received the full entitlement of £20.70 a week for the first child, and £13.70 for every subsequent child.
article_snippet.sent: the Institute for Fiscal Studies have suggested that increasing Universal Credit for some families and using Universal Credit instead of child benefit could save £4.8billion a year.
article_snippet.sent: If us wanted to put child benefit into Universal Credit us would have done child benefit when us set up Universal Credit.
article_snippet.sent: It is widely speculated that the Conservatives could restrict child benefit to just two children, to save around £2billion a year.
article_snippet.sent: Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith recently said it was ‘well worth looking at’ and could save ‘significant money’ and help with ‘behaviour change’ by forcing couples to think carefully about whether couples could afford to have another child.
article_snippet.sent: It was not seriously considered in this Parliament due to opposition from the Liberal Democrats and David Cameron appeared to reject It last year amid concerns It would alienate low-income families.
article_snippet.sent: This would mean 4.3 million families losing over £1,000 a year, according to the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies.’