'Labour could make a really bold statement about the kind of party they are now - that would be real change'
In his last budget in March, Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a review into the grossly unfair High Income Child Benefit Charge.
That meant an extra £2,000 in tax for a family with two kids. There were two things that were unfair about this charge. One, the threshold had stayed at £50,000 since the charge was introduced in 2013. Back then, £50k a year was a pretty decent whack - it was around £10k above the higher rate income tax threshold. But fast forward 10 years and the income tax threshold had gone up to £50k but the child benefit charge threshold hadn't moved.
This is the real unfairness of the charge and it is yet to be fixed. The new thresholds in March have helped some families - but the unfairness remains. Jeremy Hunt was clear that the review should fix the issue - but he conceded that it was difficult and would take time. There is something to be said for keeping some of your finances private from your partner - this can be anything from one partner having unfair control over the family finances, to just retaining that small bit of independence. So how do we fix this issue? Well, there is one very quick fix - which would be quite costly for the government - but would reward a lot of families in the so-called squeezed middle.
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