feeling that tax credits are totally biased towards working mums?

[Dragonhart]

I am a SAHM and I get the min working tax credit as my DH earns just over the min for getting more help.

I was talking to my friend yesterday who works 4 days a week as a teacher (their combined salaries are just below the top of the band of getting any money) and I was saying what I got now we have two children. I get just over £40 plus about £40 baby element. When dd is 1 and I have two under 3 I will get £40.

She told me that she gets about £160 a months towards childcare in vouchers on her and her husbands paypacket (not sure if this is classed as tax credit?) and £75 permonth for her only ds in tax credits.

I am not making a coment about whether or not people choose to work as I stongly believe that everyone should have a choice to do what is right for them.

I just think that I should be supported in the same way as working mums. Surely I am my childrens 'childcare'?

Child Tax Credits

you are indeed joking, I hope

amidaiwish - that doesn't answer my question though

And why is France like that? Because a male-dominated state has had the upper hand for years and years and years, engineering legislation to women's detriment. It is when power is returned to the people that women get to wield influence.

Cr I read that too. Does it mean the working families tax credit childcare element can be claimed by a working man with non working wife?

Is that cash as well?I think it is added to these fiendishly complicated calculations they keep getting so wrong. Glad I'm out of it.

I think vouchers from employers for registered child minders and nurseries are separate and presumably a man could use those so his wife could go to the hairdressers and gym and the child is cared for.

I think yes, nurseries should be subsidize by the state REGARDLESS of the goverments plans to encourage or not women to go back to work.

"It bugs me when people think they should earn money for staying at home"

so why are you so bugged that a mother wants to stay at home to look after her own children rather than pay someone else to do it ?

clearly the Germans or Scandanavians aren't as bugged by it because thair govts. see real long-term benefit to a child being looked after by his own mother. so they give you a decent period of maternity leave plus something like 80% of your salary in the first year.

i paid masses of tax as one of those top 5% people when i was working, but am now entitled to diddly because my husband isn't on the poverty line and i have cash and investments which make us ineligible.

i can't see why i should get nothing, whereas the average teenage single parent mum (who probably didn't want a baby in the first place but got pregas by mistake) pays zero rent in council accommodation and gets cash as a single parent, plus she never paid tax before getting pregas (well if she did it would have been a tiny fraction of what i have paid so far)

put on top of that the lack of good transport or a decent health service or even a decent rubbish collection service and some of my tax money going toward fighting illegal wars which i never voted for and you soon wonder what the feck i paid all that tax for ? i need some of it back NOW so that i don't have to be forced into working in an office.

i am working from home now and also busy planning my own business which allows me to stay with my son. it is a crap system that practically forces most women (those who wish to stay at home that is) to go back to working away from home and to leave their children in the care of strangers.

I'dlike to clarify that I don't think just nurseries should be subsidised. I think all forms of childcare should be tax deductable. Every penny my DH and I spend on childcare so that we can go to work should be completely exempt from tax. And that goes for nannies, childminders, and nurseries so long as we are using them so we can go to work. So, if I work 40 hours per week, I should get say 50 hours of childcare (to account for travel time).

Oh, Yellowrose, you better strap that hard hat on tight with the use of the word "stranger".

If I were designing the system I'd have something like 15% flat tax, £200 a week paid to all adults and no benefits, credits, claims subsidies etc so adults choose a life they want.

Too right she should. I don't leave my kids with strangers FFS!

Oh, Xenia, can I come live in your new country? Is is on your Island? What's the weather like?

they aren't strangers anyumore after a few sessions

and God forbid anyone should have to lower themselves to work in an office to support their children.

I thought that too, persephone.

When I was at uni, I couldn't claim the childcare element of my mandatory support (such as it was) as my dd was looked after by my parents on the days when I went in. They didn't and never would have begrudged her anything but I would have liked to have paid my parents the childcare grant I otherwise could have claimed had I placed her into a day-care provider as a contribution towards their time. I even didn't take advantage of the subsidised creche at the university which may have enabled another student who may not have had such good family support, to use that place instead (mainly as I wanted my dd to go to a more local creche instead, admittedly). I think state childcare support should be available to pay grandparents or whoever you deem fit to mind your child without them having to go into a 'registered setting' in order to claim it. I can understand why there is need to have 'registered settings' or some parents would claim childcare allowance anyway whilst sitting there painting their nails all day or whatever but the 'all or nothing' approach doesn't seem fair either if you can find a viable alternative to state provision that you are happy with.

no need for hard hat, i have done it before without getting injured, remember ?

oh franca, but they are, they are just strangers you know a bit better

any French people here who would like to comment on the Little Britain-esque remarks made towards them on this thread ?

Yes, that's right, I dump my LOs on total strangers and take no interest in them after that.

Why use the word 'stranger' YW unless you wish to be offensive?

'i can't see why i should get nothing, whereas the average teenage single parent mum (who probably didn't want a baby in the first place but got pregas by mistake) pays zero rent in council accommodation and gets cash as a single parent, plus she never paid tax before getting pregas (well if she did it would have been a tiny fraction of what i have paid so far)'

Bit of a sweeping statement about the teenage mum but, that aside, how do you imagine this 'pay-everyone-for-staying-at-home' system you envisage will be paid for?

perse - it comes down to your point of view re. working in an office.

Yes, but what's wrong with that? Personally I have a huge problem with the nuclear family unit.
Yes I find the description of France quite irritating.

Xenia, would you have notional service? I cna just imagine DS1 lounging around for a couple of years!

I don't actually know a single woman who dumps her children on total strangers and doesn't take no interest. Do you really?

Yellowrose does apparently.

I think the word 'stranger' in this context is similar to the word 'abuse' or 'junk food'. Used to indicate dismissiveness of the other POV.

ups sorry ormirian, you were being ironic??!! Sorry, I'm a bit lost in translation, as usual. Better go and make the most of my childfree day (until 3.30 that is).