600,000 parents facing a salary cut as curbs on child benefit bite

MORE than 600,000 parents affected by the Government’s controversial child benefit changes could be hit by an unexpected drop in their salary next month.

The allowance – which they have continued to receive, but must pay back – will be deducted from their wages by HM Revenue and Customs.

A family with two children could lose nearly £300 after a tax code change.

Parents expecting to repay the money in next year’s self-assessment tax return, due on January 31, 201 , could see money taken in the next two months.

A couple with two children, who receive £1,7 2 child benefit a year, will be charged £146 in February and £146 in March. The balance of what they owe must be repaid in next year’s tax return.

HMRC yesterday apologised for the con- fusion and said the charge can be stopped by calling the tax collection department to reverse the code change.

At present, you can receive £9,440 in income before paying a penny in tax. But HMRC will change this tax code to reclaim money owed in child benefit.

In January last year around 1.1million parents lost all or some of their eligibility for child benefit. If one or both parents earn more than £60,000 they lost the benefit entirely, while those earning more than £ 0,000 and up to £60,000 lost some on a sliding scale.

Around 460,000 parents decided to give up their payments straight away. The problem affects around 640,000 others who continued to receive child benefit. Many are currently paying back the amount they received between January 7, 2013 – when the rules were changed – and April , the last day of the tax year.

But buried in the tax return form was a box which asked if they wanted benefit received between April 6, 2013 and April this year to be automatically removed.

Anyone who did not tick this box will see money taken from their salary.

An HMRC spokesman said: ‘We will not be collecting the full child benefit charge for 2013/14 before January 31, 201 , at the earliest. We apologise if the coding notice suggests otherwise and anyone who finds they are having the child benefit charge taken in a way they did not want should contact us as soon as possible.’