From Monday 7th January 2013 child benefit will be means tested. Households in which one parent earns more than £50,000 will no longer be eligible for the full benefit and will lose 1% of payments for every £100 earned above £50,000.Those households where one parent earns more than £60,000 will not be eligible for any payment at all. People who are no longer entitled to the benefit will either have to opt to stop receiving the money or repay it by way of a higher tax using the self-assessment regime.
However, according to the Guardian only 800,000 of these families have received letters from HMRC outlining this information meaning that at least 300,000 may be unaware of the changes to the system.
HMRC has reported that approximately 1.1 million families will be affected by these changes, with 70% of those families losing all of their child benefit. It is thought that the average household will lose £1,300 a year.