Child benefits ‘panic’ denied
HIGH earners will be stripped of child benefit payments, ministers were forced to insist yesterday, amid claims the Treasury was in a “panic” about how to make the plan work.
Chancellor George Osborne wants the benefit stopped from 2013 from any households which include a higher rate taxpayer.
But Labour seized on a report quoting a Treasury source as saying the controversial measure may be “unenforceable” and might have to be ditched, because the benefit is paid to mothers who have no obligation to tell tax authorities the amount their partners earn.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Lib Dem Danny Alexander told the Commons that reports of a problem were “nonsense” and that the cut was “completely enforceable” and would be introduced as planned.
The coalition has painted the child benefit measure, which would save taxpayers £2.5billion a year, as an example of its determination to ensure the pain of public spending cuts is shared fairly around society.