Two-earner household

One charge, measured one person at a time

Child Benefit in 2026/27 pays £27.05 a week for your eldest child and £17.90 for each younger one, which is £2,337 a year for a two-child family. Once someone's adjusted income passes £60,000 the High Income Child Benefit Charge starts taking it back, at 1% of the benefit for every £200 over, until nothing is left at £80,000. The detail that catches households out: the test is run on each partner separately, and your combined income is never once considered. The measured figure is adjusted net income, which pensions reduce and so do Gift Aid donations at their grossed-up value: £800 given in the year is £1,000 off the higher earner's number.

Worked example: the same £100,000, two ways

A couple earning £70,000 and £30,000 brings home £100,000 before tax. One income is £10,000 over the line, so half the benefit, £1,169 a year, goes back to HMRC. A couple earning £50,000 each brings home the same £100,000 and keeps every penny of Child Benefit, plus a little more take-home from two full basic-rate bands. In this example the even split is worth £2,762 a year more, for identical household earnings. Nobody designed that on purpose, but there it is, and it has survived every Budget since 2013.

Who should pay the pension, and how much

Because the charge only ever looks at the higher earner, only the higher earner's pension can shrink it. In the £70,000 and £30,000 household, £10,000 of salary sacrifice by the higher earner brings adjusted income down to £60,000: take-home falls by £5,800, while £10,000 lands in the pension and the £1,169 charge disappears entirely. Sacrifice by the £30,000 partner would cost real money and fix nothing. The calculator names the right partner and the exact amount for your own numbers, and the sacrifice optimiser takes it from there. For the rest of the household picture, the take-home pay calculator handles each salary in full detail.