Child benefit

[wendy]

After the budget Maureen remembered child benefit and this brought back loads of memories.
I did not receive child benefit for my first child so it was not until 1972 that I claimed it and no one had ever claimed the benefit in my family before this.
I remember pushing the pram round to the post office to fetch the money to pay for food whether it was snowing or in a heat wave.
The money was needed and certainly not a luxury.
do you have any memories of collecting your allowance?

In the UK, child benefit is administered by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). As of April 2015 this is £20.70 per week for the first child (including the eldest of a multiple birth) and £13.70 per week for each additional child.[8]

The system was first implemented in August 1946 as "family allowances" under the Family Allowances Act 1945, at a rate of 5s (= £0.25) per week per child in a family, except for the eldest. This was raised from September 1952, by the Family Allowances and National Insurance Act 1952, to 8s (= £0.40), and from October 1956, by the Family Allowances Act and National Insurance Act 1956, to 8s for the second child with 10s (= £0.50) for the third and subsequent children. By 1955, some 5,000,000 allowances were being paid, to about 3,250,000 families.[9]

It was modified in 1977, with the payments being termed "child benefit" and given for the eldest child as well as the younger ones; by 1979 it was worth £4 per child per week. In 1991, the system was further altered, with a higher payment now given for the first child than for their younger siblings. In October 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced that Child Benefit would be withdrawn from households containing a higher-rate taxpayer from January 2013.[10] After some controversy this was amended so that any householder with a least one person with prescribed income over £50,000 would lose Child Benefit by a taper which removed it altogether when the income reached £60,000. This came into force on 7 January 2013[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_ben ... ed_Kingdom

[wendy]

I can't remember how much I used to get, can you?

[annie]

I couldn't remember how much I got , so looked it up & it was only 30 shillings in 1970. I remember a buff coloured book with the vouchers in & you collected it from the post office each week.

[maureenho]

I can remember in the 1950's my mum use to get 8 shillings a week.