Child benefit axed for higher-rate taxpayers

Couples where one parent earns about £44,000 - roughly the 40% tax level - and above will be affected. Ministers estimate the change will hit about 1.2 million families. Ahead of his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham today, Osborne told the BBC it was a "big" but "absolutely necessary" decision. He also insisted it was a "one-off" measure. Currently child benefit is paid to some 7.7 million families with children, costing about £12bn a year. "It is not a decision we have taken lightly," Osborne said. "But given the scale of the debts Labour's left us with, a...