Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make a comparative assessment of the equity of the application of the High Income Child Benefit Charge on total family incomes for families where (a) one partner earns above the threshold and the other does not work and (b) two partners each earn below the threshold but whose joint income would be above the threshold if it had been earned by a single person.

The Government introduced the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) from January 2013 to ensure that support for families is targeted at those who need it most. The tax charge applies to anyone with an individual income over £50,000 who claims Child Benefit, or whose partner claims it, regardless of family make-up.

HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy. Basing HICBC on household income would effectively introduce a new means test, which would be costly to administer and create burdens on the majority of families who receive Child Benefit.

The current approach only requires a small number of Child Benefit claimants to complete a self assessment tax return to report and pay HICBC, while leaving the vast majority of claimants unaffected.