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Around 55,000 single parents will lose their child benefit as a result of government cuts, a parliamentary answer has disclosed.
A further 125,000 families with one earner and a stay–athome parent will also be hit, according to David Gauke, the Treasury secretary.
Single parents and married couples where a mother or father stays at home to care for the children will suffer the most, because the Government has elected to remove the benefit from any family where there is at least one higher–rate taxpayer.
That means that two working parents earning a collective £80,000 would continue to receive the benefit, providing that neither breached the higher–rate tax threshold. One working parent receiving just over half that amount would lose the money.
Child benefit can be worth around £2,500 a year to a family with three children.
In total, 1.2million households – mostly with two working parents – will lose their entitlement to child benefit.
Single parents who lose the benefit will be particularly badly affected because they will have to pay for child care out of their reduced income, while those who have a parent at home do not shoulder this burden.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, justified his decision to strip the benefit from those with a single income in the higher rate bracket on the grounds of "fairness" and "simplicity".
The benefit change will come into force in April 2013.
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