“Difficult but fair” is the phrase George Osborne used today after announcing that higher earners are going to lose their child benefit.

I wonder how long he pondered that one?  While I am all for cuts to child benefit, because a one-size-fits-all policy is of no use when the purse strings are being pulled to breaking point, I’m not so sure the change he is talking about is fair.

Necessary, maybe, but fair – hardly.

We know there need to be cuts and we know it’s not going to be fun. The situation is desperate. And, let’s face it, child benefit is the obvious choice in terms of where the axe should fall. It is the benefit handed out to everyone regardless of need. That’s a laudible policy but it’s one we certainly can’t afford.

• Child benefit cuts – click here for story

I applaud the brave move to tackle it head-on and say it’s time this gravy train stopped. I bet there are a fair few high-earners who wouldn’t even notice it being cut.

But, once again, it is the middle-class families who already get precious little back from their tax contribution who will be hit hardest. It’s the super rich who should have been in his sights.

And then there is problem in that there is a glaring loophole: Those earning over £44,000 are to be affected with a blanket cut on the individual claimant. Osborne admitted that a household with two people earning £44,000 each, totalling £88,000, could still receive the benefit, whereas a household where just one person was earning £50,000 would have it withdrawn.

Is that fair or, indeed, the best money-saving tactic? Do you really think so, George? Because the one-income household probably needs it more than most. They have no-one to fall back on for help. What about helping those who help themselves?

He went on to claim in this Tory Conference speech that it will show we are all in this together, but it’s hardly going to feel like that when this kind of glitch occurs in how the figures are reached.

The chancellor has claimed that this is merely because he doesn’t want to waste the savings made on a new system to means-test each individual family. But surely that’s not necessary if you simply insist that families declare on one form how much money comes into the house, set a ceiling and use that to decide where to make the cuts.

Although I don’t have much faith in the benefits system or that it could ever be simple.

I submitted a claim for my first son – now almost two years old – shortly after he was born. I received a letter back in which they had added two children I had never heard of and wanted to give me more than £160 a month.

A year later, after endless phones calls, various letters and the same copy of the application form and resulting award for my “three children” being submitted six times, I eventually managed to persuade them I only had one child and he was the only one I would be claiming for. The mix-up must have cost hundreds of pounds in man hours alone.

Make the cut if you have to George – it is time, but don’t pretend it’s fair  and while you’re at it  get them to sort out the present system. It could just save you a few extra quid.