Tens of thousands more families are set to pay the high income child benefit charge (HICBC) over the next three years, new figures have revealed.
HMRC’s official forecasts show that the number of families in the UK liable for the HICBC will rise from 324,000 in 2025–26 to 359,000 in 2028–29 – an increase of roughly 35,000.
Most affected families are expected to be in the tapering range of liability, between £60,000 and £80,000, meaning they will repay a proportion of their child benefit rather than the full amount.
HMRC forecasts, obtained by wealth manager Quilter, show that:
- 213,000 families will be in the HICBC taper in 2025–26, rising to 246,000 by 2028–29
- 111,000+ families each year will be repaying child benefit in full
Quilter said these figures highlight how frozen thresholds are inadvertently increasing the net tax burden on working parents in the UK and reducing the real value of support intended to help families with the costs of bringing up children.
HMRC also admitted that it does not hold comprehensive data showing how many taxpayers who earn above £100,000 are responsible for children. Once one member of a household with children earns over £100,000 they lose access to the tax-free childcare scheme and valuable funded childcare hours which means they are no longer eligible for 30 hours of funded childcare per week during term time.
Shaun Moore, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, said: “Our FOI shows that tens of thousands more families will be pulled into the HICBC over the coming years purely because frozen thresholds let inflation and nominal earnings shifts do the work of tax increases.
“The data shows that each successive year, more parents will be subject to clawbacks of child benefit that eat into household budgets at a time when costs of living remain high.”
“It is also worrying that HMRC cannot say how many higher earners have children, because it means the government lacks full visibility of who faces these financial cliff edges. As more families cross into higher income brackets in name alone, policymakers are effectively taking a shot in the dark on a key piece of family finances.”
