Child benefit reform plans scrapped

Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell, said: “There’s no doubt that it would have been a huge administration task for HMRC to assess couples on their household income rather than sole income, meaning there is no easy fix.”

By not going ahead with the change, though, “it means the system that punishes single earners will remain”.

The Budget document also revealed that the government would allow employed individuals to pay their HICBC through their tax code from 2025, instead of having to submit a self assessment tax return.

Ms Suter said this would improve the “admin side” of child benefit payments, which has been criticised for being confusing.

“However, that’s merely fixing one problem with the system when in reality it needed larger scale reform. The complications in the system mean it is underclaimed and not well understood.”