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'?

But life is as much life at work as at home. Babies are like adults - they love routine and structure.

I don't think that work is only good because of routine and structure. If you're lucky then work can be very satisfying. It can make you think, keep you on your toes, bring you into contact with a wide range of people.

Xenia - I just don't have that example around me. My grandparents in their time, and subsequently my parents and aunts and uncles, retired with glee and have never been happier, healthier or busier doing all the things they always wanted to do but that work commitments prevented them from doing.

And as for babies loving routine and structure - not mine...

In fact, IMO only very boring, unimaginative people like to fit in with external structures. The fun, stimulating people create their own lives...

So artists and other creative types never work to deadlines or have external structures?

of course work can be stimulating but it can also suck all creativity out of you if you have to follow very rigid corporate structures. it depends on what you do and where you work. you are much more likley to have fun and creativity at a small org.

i agree that babies/infants up to a certain age love routine (milk, sleep, poo is how it goes usually !) but not toddlers. most are into defying their parents most of the time !

it seems that it is in the nature of a child to defy his parents (i.e. authority) so i reckon human nature is geared towards anti-establishment behaviour. of course chaos would ensue if we allowed everyone to do as they wished, but it all depends on WHAT you are trying to control.

My 4 year old loves routine. She asks fr the days schedule as soon as I get her up in the morning -- still half asleep. This is probably because I love schedules and plans and she in my daughter and has inherited the trait.

I disagree. I don't think young babies are that keen on structure but I think toddlers thrive on a basic routine. They are secure and know what happens next - it helps them make sense of their own small world. OK they kick off against it, but that is all part of the development process.

my son is extremely independent and secure, but he hates doing things the SAME way every day, he loves being surprised about what we are going to do next. it has to do with the child's developing personality. babies are different, they have basic needs that they wish to have met in the same sort of order every day otherwise they freak out.

My point (which I obviously failed to illustrate) was that some children like routine and structure, and some don't. Just like some adults like it and some don't. My child probably likes it because she takes after me. I HATE a lack of structure at work and at home. But, not everyone is like that.

I like rules, regulations, and procedures. And I have little patience for people who d on't follow them.

I sond like a wacko control freak, don't I??

I think I'll shut up now.

well life gets very boring if all you ever do is follow structures and procedures. we are not machines, well some of us any way

amidaiwish- as another short aside- I found your ill-tempered reaction to an attempt at solidarity between mothers (on the sleep issue) a trifle puzzling. If even one person had told me when my son was small that their child only slept x number of hours too, instead of looking at me pityingly and implying that we'd made our own rod, I would have felt less crap. I think it's useful to share that type of information, especially when it's less usual traits.

oh stop being so sensitive
i have a 19m old who doesn't sleep through, a 3 year old he gets up at 5am and a dh who travels almost constantly for his work. i am the first one to sympathise, empathise etc on a lack of sleep!

my point is that it was a (very informative and interesting) thread about tax credits etc and it was descending fast into "i am a sahm my life is hard" "no i go to work, my life is harder" etc. etc. which has been done to death on this site.

maybe you should get an early night?

Huh???

1. I am not a SAHM.
2. My children are 9, 12 and 13 years old, so broken nights are a long way behind me.
3. How very odd...

well then my comment wasn't referring to you was it? off now, to settle children.

C'est cela même, oui.

I'd say probably depends on whether or not you get a staff reduction. On a nursery nurse salary, you'd almost certainly be claiming child care credit unless your partner were earning mega-bucks... (I think). My sister claims child care vouchers as she is struggling to bring up two little ones alone solely on her salary (b*stard ex refuses to contribute a single penny). She can only claim about half the cost of the cheapest nursery she can find in her town.

In Valerie Grove's book looking at the lives of happily married women with 4+ children who work and in good jobs... one of her mothers, who I think became a judge set up a nursery school in her house basement simply to be childcare for the 5 or 6 children but also it made profits too. Seemed like a good plan.

I noticed recently our previous to last nanny who left to have a baby is back doing nanny jobs (I gave her a reference) and she has found childcare for her child which surprised me. Our first nanny brought both her chidlren to work whch wasn't ideal but she'd been with us 10 years so slightly different thing.

I have to say i am very disappointed in the fact that everybody expects to get something no matter what salary they are on I would love to be in a position where i am earning 18k-25k a year - this would allow me to live very comfortably and i would be able to afford my own house and pay for full child care by my self and still have spending money! If i was on this sort of salary i wouldnt really expect any financial help from tax credits (or maybe perhaps with child care as they are so expensive) I am a full time working mum and i pay for child care for my son that £637.50 per month thats half my wages and i get nothing from tax credits no help with child care, no help with finances nothing so all you people that do have help that arnt working and are compareing your income to other people count your selves lucky that you actually got £40 a week some of us get nothing!

Sorry i also have to add that yes i do choose to work and since i have been back i have felt rally good about earning money and getting back on my feet but its not just about choosing to work, my son was ready to go to nursury and i can definately see the benefits in him. I agree with what someone said earlier placing your child in nursary is sometimes very good and i dont have any regrets

The only change I think should be made is that child care is not considered a "expense" if you are self employed. For me being self employed it is my largest expense and is what all my calculations are based around.

Why is childcare not considered a viable business cost when it is the biggest barrier to returning to work?