Childcare reform: what about parents not on benefits?

And honestly, if this were implemented, not only would it benefit women and children immensely, but it would pay for itself! This is how it's done in France, Denmark, many other countries: allowances allocated on a household basis. People complain about single mothers not working/ not working much but if they could work/ work more and take home the same that two parent families do for that same gross income earned, then they would!! So more tax revenue, more productivity.

I have seen the calculations of what we'd get in benefits if I didn't work and hadn't spent my 20s working 90 hour weeks to build a career and bought a house before having children. We'd have our rent paid and due to my DCs' disabilities we'd have over £3k per month on top of that. No childcare cost then and no mortgage, far more time with my children, not doing this damage to my own health, so we'd be far better off than now.

It is an absolute kick in the teeth! And economically makes no sense: surely the state should rather give me the same tax allowances as a couple with children but still get a large chunk of tax from me per month and me fund all of our living costs, rather than push my health over the edge and them then have to pay for everything? I really don't get it.

It does feel like it's just part of the vilification of single mothers so nobody cares, because there's no logic to it, so it means a lot to hear people like you @LadyWindermeresOnlyFans say that you're hearing us (single parents/ parents of disabled DC) and support the system being changed to be fair to us. Just want to be taxed the same as other households with the same income, that's all! I really don't think it's unreasonable. I hope others will think about it and also write to MPs etc to support this being changed.

It is. I'm averaging 1-3 hours sleep per night and have been for a few years now. No support financial or otherwise. Mortgage on my own. Childcare bill of £2.5k per month. If they would at least tax me only the same as a dual income household then maybe I could breathe, or very occasionally have some respite with childcare when I'm not working so I could sleep for a few hours. At the moment I am either working or looking after disabled DCs 24/7. It really stings that we'd be so much better off if they'd just give us the same level of tax allowances as households with two parents and the same income.

Also in the outside of UC bracket because of DHs earning. Plus in commuter belt SE so insane costs for childcare l, and everything else.

I'm currently out of work and looking for a new job. I can only afford to work reduced hours; either 5 shorter days or 4 full days.

Despite all the 'were a flexible employer... let use know what accommodations you need... we understand 9-5 doesn't work for everyone.... blah blah blah...' when you mention needing something other than 9-5 they say it's 'not open to new employees', or 'we're busy so it has to be full time' or 'we can't offer reduced hours for senior roles'... I've heard it all.

5 full days for 2 kids, including discount and free hours for one of them is £2700 a month. Most are also asking for 3 days in the office, so then there's a £450 a month season ticket.

£3150 a month for childcare and travel!!!!

After tax, NI, and student loan I need at £55k salary to break even.

I'm in the sort of industry where if I take a career break id never get back in. Or best case id have to start from the bottom again.

Thanks but unfortunately we can't do that either as the setting my youngest is in doesn't offer it. My oldest has disabilities which make different pick up and drop of locations impossible.

If the OP is so ill that they can neither work nor look after their children they will be eligible for some kind of help, which would then open the door to reduced price childcare etc.

@ScruffyGiraffe yes and they are the parents who already have to fight for adequate support for their children day to day anyway. It must be exhausting.

We don't actually know what's in the budget until it happens, so there's that (although I acknowledge the practice of the government heavily hinting in advance is pretty solidly embedded now).

Whilst I would very much like to see substantial reform of childcare, I'm not really convinced the bastard Tories are the people to do it - anything they were to offer would be superficially shiny but would ultimately subtly screw over both parents and providers. I'm encouraged by the fact that Labour are focusing on childcare, so hope that they'll be in a position to enact that before too long.

In the meantime, I do think it's right that the cap on UC childcare costs be raised. The figure of 'up to 85%' of costs being covered gets bandied about, but the cap is massively less than 85% of the amount of a full-time childcare place so it's disingenuous that it's presented in these terms. The cap is a huge barrier to work. There are many, many other things I'd also like to change about childcare support for parents but even if I'm not going to see any of those changes, I don't have it in me to get worked up about some additional support being offered to people on low wages.

I get 30 funded hours

Thank you. Absolutely. The whole system needs reform but it would be great if more people were interesting in pushing for the reforms that would help those for whom the problems are compounded: single parents who are getting half of the allowances that everyone else has, and parents with disabled DC for which childcare is much, much more expensive. We should all stand side by side to insist on these changes which directly impoverish women and children.

Because she’s too ill to look after her children. This was the same with me with dd. Not working and dd in nursery.

@kitsuneghost post · Today 11:10

Why on earth would you even have kids on benefits. Talk about thick. We are on a household income of 70k with 100k savings and couldn't afford kids.

You can't be very good at prioritising and managing your money then, can you? Maybe you could go on a course. Many local councils have money advice services for free. HTH.

This.

@ScruffyGiraffe absolutely noted. Thank you for taking the time to highlight this. I often wonder how on earth single parents (mothers) do it, but in terms of the day to day slog, rather than the financials. I'll definitely think more widely now about it all. We definitely do need to come together and shout for each other, not just those in the same circumstances as our own.

Thank you. Tbh that main thing I would like to see is the mothers who are in couples sticking up for how punative the system is towards single parents, as it feels like nobody is on our side. Not even asking for any actual financial help, just the tax thresholds being adjusted so that single parent households aren't taxed more on the same household income than those with two earners, have CB removed at half the level of earnings, have half the tax-free allowance, lose the funded hours and "tax free childcare" and personal allowance at half the household income level etc. Just basic fairness and a level playing field rather than the double whammy of trying to do two parents' roles in only 24 hours per day so obviously needing more childcare to start with, and then being taxed more than them on the same income on top of that! Solidarity from other women to campaign to remove this unfairness would be amazing. Over 90% of single parents are women so it is very discriminatory but nobody seems to care. ☹️

I've just been listening to the news... the only change is they will be paid in advance not arrears for childcare, which means they won't get into debt

We manged kids on far lower savings/income compared to average wage years ago - but yes, savings paid for quite a chunk of childcare, this was mostly years ago when there wasn't funded childcare available.

How unpleasant.

And do you think it is a sensible situation that a household with your income and savings feels that children are unaffordable? If not, why would you not support reform of the system?

@DevantMaJardin 100% agree

@ScruffyGiraffe bloody hell, I honestly don't know how people in your situation do it. Massive respect to you Wish I had something more useful to say, sorry!

You definitely could 😆 you chose not to

We need to not judge people for getting what we want, but to come together to demand what we want from the government AS WELL as what other people are getting. Stop fighting for scraps from the table and demand a damn sandwich instead!

I'm personally paying £24,000 a year in childcare so I can work full time, I earn over £30k, but we desperately need that extra £100-ish a month that I am actually taking home from my salary after tax, student loans etc.

I really wanted universal childcare for working families to come in with the April budget but I don't see that happening while we are not all standing shoulder to shoulder telling the government that we need this to keep the economy going.

Yep. And then think about how you'd manage if like me you were a lone parent with two young kids and a full time job and not entitled to any UC or child benefit etc...

The answer is that Government heavily subsidise childcare because it pays for itself many times over!

@PatientlyWaiting21 Both myself and my partner are on a good wage, but the costs of child care and just breathing on this planet is crippling us!

THIS!