Martin Lewis says 'it staggers me' as he hits out at tax 'unfairness'

Martin Lewis has spoken out against the ‘unfair’ child benefit system

Martin Lewis has spoken out against the ‘unfairness’ of charges for Child Benefit for those earning a singular higher income.

He has previously pointed out that the current child benefit system is severely flawed as penalties associated with a claimant’s earnings could leave them worse off. Due to how Child Benefit is calculated, some people who earn more money than other claimants are excluded from child benefits, while certain families with a higher combined income are still eligible for the support.

Claimants begin to receive penalties on child benefit when a single person earns £50,000 a year and it’s completely lost when they earn £60,000. However, a couple who both earn £49,000 each will still get the full child benefit because their individual income does not meet the penalty baseline, even though their combined income is significantly higher.

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Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Martin said: “Even the Chancellor had to agree with me, when I put it to him, that the High Income Child Benefit Charge is an unfairness in the tax system.” It penalises single parent and single income families unfairly.

“It was by far the biggest single topic the public wanted me to put to politicians. The problem is exacerbated by the frozen £50,000 threshold which fiscally-drags more single parent families into this situation each year.

“It staggers me no party has latched onto the popularity they’ll get from pledging to ends this structurally unfair anomaly.”

Martin added his statement after charity Gingerbread, which advocated on behalf of single parents, announced it is writing to MPs about the unfairness of the current child benefit system. In response to Martin’s post, it said on X: “Thank you to @MartinSLewis and team for supporting this issue.

“The Higher Income Child Benefit Charge can be particularly discriminatory for single parent households. We call on the Chancellor to take action in the #SpringStatement.”