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MNHQ

Tax-free childcare - government consultation - have your say.

57 replies

KatieMumsnet · 25/09/2013 16:06

Hi there

The government are currently holding a consultation on their tax-free childcare proposal.

The policy, announced by David Cameron in March is a money-back scheme where working parents can get 20% of the cost of their annual childcare costs up to a maximum of £1,200 a child. It is open to all families where both parent’s work or one parent works in single-parent families. The scheme will initially be for parents of children under the age of five, but it's the government's intention to extend that eventually to parents of children under the age of 12.

You can read Mumsnet’s guide to the programme here, the discussion thread at the time of the announcement here and the full consultation doc from the government here.

If you'd like to feedback your views, the government are asking about how the vouchers might work, how eligibility should be determined and for other thoughts on the programme.

To feedback your views via a government questionnaire you can click here

Or to provide a fuller response you can click here to download a response form.

We will also collate comments here and submit them to the treasury. The closing date for the overall consultation is the 14th October, but the closing date for the questionnaire is this Friday – the 27th.

Best MNHQ

OP posts:
BettyandDon · 25/09/2013 18:35

I believe that most SAHMs are doing it because they think it's right for their children.

It is virtually impossible to find well paid part time work and only if this was available would it be of interest. Offering £1200 off a huge childcare bill would not entice me back to work.

Having the same job I did before on a part time basis would. But this was not possible due to 'business reasons', ie, the fact that the majority of the working world does 9-5.

YoureBeingADick · 25/09/2013 18:31

I don't think it goes far enough.

I think every adult in the UK should get 1 full time to the age of 5 and part time from 5-12 childcare place tax free. (obviously only if working and have a child to claim the place)

Bonsoir · 25/09/2013 18:25

And what about families where one parent is not well enough to work or shoulder much in the way of domestic responsibilities? Don't those families also deserve help with childcare?

I find this gross prioritising of the able-bodied who work for money as opposed to those who have quite possibly made very unselfish choices to care for others, or who have health or other issues, very distasteful.

missinglalaland · 25/09/2013 18:24

I'd rather stay home and look after my own children. Dear husband works very hard. No tax break for our family then.

noisytoys · 25/09/2013 17:58

Our childcare is £730/month and that is after the 15 hours free funding. The £1200 won't be 20% for a lot of parents who both work full time.

Bonsoir · 25/09/2013 17:56

To give a real-life example: a middle-aged friend of mine has given up her very well-paid job because her elderly parents are frail and need help, her only sister is shortly to lose her H to cancer and has 3 DC in critical school years and that family needs huge amounts of support - and she has 3 DC of her own for whom she must continue to employ a nanny due to her frequent absences from home (parents and sister both live a long way away). This is France so she gets a tax break for her nanny whether she is working g or not. Frankly she deserves it and I think she would be rightly very cross if she had lost it in the circumstances.

Bonsoir · 25/09/2013 17:48

Why discriminate against families where there is a SAHP? I don't think it is the business of governments to offer tax breaks to certain sorts of families and not others. Some families with SAHPs have very good reasons for needing childcare - families where there are significant caring responsibilities being shouldered, for example.