Cuts to the benefits system are never going to be welcomed with open arms, but when it comes to universal payments, surely an overhaul is common sense.

From yesterday, parents earning more than £50,000 a year will see a substantial reduction in their child benefits, while those earning more than £60,000 a year will lose them.

Of course it’s a clumsily-introduced scheme which doesn’t distinguish between single-income and double-income families – so a single parent on £60,000 a year will lose their child benefit yet a couple each on £50,000, or just under, will keep theirs.

The Government has come under fire for the child benefit cuts which, combined with a three-year benefits and tax credits squeeze, have been branded a “huge assault” on working families. Critics warn the cuts will hit women hardest, and give rise to child poverty.

But when it comes to child benefit, surely if you’re earning more than £50,000 a year, even as a single parent, you’re not exactly on the poverty line?

The post-war welfare system was introduced to help those in need. More than 60 years later that ethos remains, and as a nation we’re lucky to have a system in place that protects the poor, the sick, the disabled and the vulnerable.

But universal payments have become outdated and, in these austere times, it is unfair to expect taxpayers to contribute where it’s not needed – especially to families who are reasonably comfortably-off.

A friend of mine never spends her child benefit. Instead she puts it into a savings account for her daughter. “It’s her money, for her future,” is how she justifies it. Her husband runs a successful business, they have no mortgage, and clearly they don’t need the child benefit payment.

Another couple I know live off a huge inheritance and a combined income of around £100,000. They regard child benefit as a bit of spending money for their children.

As a taxpayer, I do my bit to support the benefits system. But while I’m happy to contribute to welfare where it’s needed, I’m afraid it sticks in my throat that, in some cases, I’m swelling the savings or pocket money of children whose parents are much better off than me.

I have spent the last 12 years helping to care for a parent with complex mental and physical needs, yet when I once enquired about a carers’ allowance I was told that because I work full-time, I wasn’t entitled to anything.

As a parent, I’d have automatically received child benefit regardless of whether I needed it. As the carer of a parent, I haven’t received a penny.