To think that childcare costs should come out of pre tax income?

[Geraldinethegiraffe]

I know many mothers who say that after paying for childcare they pretty much break even.
Some of them end up being SAHMs because of this. Or their partners put pressure on them because they earn less than childcare costs.
So why can’t childcare cost come out of pre tax income as a work enabler? Some other countries do this.

Our work does salary sacrifice in company nursery- saves sooooo much money

@Atalantea I think it’s fairly well researched. Was it Denmark that paid 1 parent to stay home with toddlers and found it impacted siblings grades throughout school years? I think it was shown to impact early years development too. I can’t remember, but do google if you’re interested.

There needs to be a balance, both parents carry equal responsibility for childcare, both careers carry equal weight. All too often you read about couples who prioritised the mans very important job on the basis that he earned more and couldn’t possibly be expected to find, fund or provide childcare. So the woman gives up work or reduces her working hours, rather than both parties taking a proportionate hit on their careers.

Part of the issue is that folk want to have children with no significant impact on their lifestyle. It’s great to be earning £100k, but to then expect financial help from the public purse to maintain that lifestyle is a nonsense. It’s wholly possible to fund childcare on that salary without state support but yes it might mean not going on the same holidays or driving the same car etc. If you choose to do a well paid job, choose to live in an expensive part of the country, choose to have children you can’t then expect the state to subsidise that - whose going to pay the bill here?

Different schemes already exist for folk on lower incomes, I’d much rather see absent parents expected to contribute meaningfully to the costs of raising their child before subsiding childcare even further. I say that as someone with a £400/month bill for after school care.

@MotherOfCrocodiles

I agree it should all be tax free. Petrol for work travel- tax free. Tools for work- tax free. Childcare so you can work? Oooh, it was your choice to have a child. Shouldn't you be a sahm anyway? But if so it's your fault if your husband leaves you and you have no income or pension....

Petrol for work isn't tax free. Commuting (home to workplace) is never allowable. Travel between your workplace and customer's premises or other depots etc IS allowable as it should be and mostly is paid by the employer as that's completely different to home to work commuting.

Tools are usually not allowable. Only allowable where the contract of employment specifically requires them to be provided and paid for by the employee. That can include computer and office equipment. It's not tax allowable if it's either your choice to provide your own tools, or if the contract doesn't specifically require you to provide them. Again, that's how it should be.

Tax allowable expenses are usually allowable because they're needed to do your job. However, if an expense is incurred to put you in a position to do your job (i.e. commuting, childcare, etc) they're not allowable. Lots of statute and case law defining the difference between doing the job and putting yourself in the position to do your job - very, very different as prescribed in law.

It's always so black and white must be full time childcare or must be a woman giving up her job. DH and I BOTH work full time over 4 days, I do Monday to Thursday, he does Tuesday to Friday, immediately reducing maximum childcare needs to 3 days rather than five, does it mean one person going in early and one person working late at least once or twice a week yes, but DS spends 121 time with us both, a day with Grandma and loves nursery. He started going at one and his free hours (stretched will cover what he does) kick in at three, so we've got two years of paying a childcare bill, our nursery is expensive at £75 a day, there were cheaper options but with the twenty percent back from the government it works out around £500 a month, which given we both work full time is fine, there were other options such as a childminder that would've been almost half that price.
Thing is we planned all of this before we had DS. We didn't just have a clutch of children then worry about how we were going to pay for them, I also married someone who's not a raving misogynist who thinks I should be shackled to the stove with a baby on my hip, and how dare i think about working, let alone a professional career. We make choices in life and we live with the consequences of those choices.