AIBU to hope the £100k cliff edge for funded nursery hours is removed?

[horchatatresleches]

News is that the education secretary is looking at nursery funding but it’s unclear if it’s to reduce or increase the support available at either the upper or lower thresholds. AIBU to hope that the harsh cliff edge which stops all nursery funding at £100k is removed or least replaced with something tapered so that people aren’t losing money for being marginally above the threshold?

It's "nothing to show for it" when you are worse off every month than when you earned £75k but are probably doing more hours or have higher stress/ responsibility.

Well the point it that after tax, pension contributions, student loan repayments, commuting costs, and nursery fees for a couple of kids you are left with very little

You can’t save up if nothing is left

@Ohthatsabitshit when the 30 free hours was introduced, our nursery increased the fees from £75 to £95 a day for those paying out of pocket, subsidising those on free hours even further. Those earning over £100k are not only subsiding through taxes, they are further subsidising through increased fees and paying for their own children. Maybe the people that should ‘pay for their own children’ are those who don’t work but still get funded hours.

You will only be paying nursery fees for a very short time though. In a few short years you will be back to seeing your whole salary again. You will have kept your career and have many earning years ahead of you.

You misunderstand. Saving for something happens before you embark on an expensive endeavour.

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Except the rest of your salary, repayment of a loan you took from the country, and a pension for your retirement.

If nursery fees are only for a short time then why can’t they get a tax benefit of a free nursery place during this short time. It will be a small impact compared to the total tax they will pay in their life but a massive help during those expensive years

There is no (or hardly no) rest of the salary

I’ve only got two kids and will be paying nursery fees for eight years.

It will cost me around £200,000.

It’s quite a significant undertaking - and the financial penalty for earning over the threshold will be £50-60k for my younger child. Net! So probably double that in earnings.

It’s like buying a house.

Because the support is for those on lower incomes, not for those on £100,000+.

So what if someone is on a much lower salary so can’t save up and then suddenly gets a promotion whilst pregnant. Should they turn down the job/ day they can’t take it until after the nursery years?

Ok but why is the support only available for those on lower salaries and not over 100k?

It’s surely not news to you or the vast majority of those posting on this thread that it’s expensive to have children (as is buying a house).

I’m pointing out it’s not just ‘a few short years’, nor an insignificant sum of money people are losing as a result of this policy.

I genuinely don't think most people get the problem.

They just see £100k and almost want to punish anyone earning that much.

The trouble is it's actually potentially damaging productivity and that has a negative effect on those at the bottom because of the knock on effects.

It doesn't help anyone except those with an ill thought out 'punish the rich' mentality that can't see beyond that jealousy.

Because it is a benefit for those on a lower income who do not have the advantages of 100k salaries. Are you struggling to understand why some people need help and some do not?

Can you share your cheaper finds please? Commuter family in London / Surrey borders - please share your cheaper alternatives?

I’ll wait.

Many of those people on lower salaries are better off than those on higher salaries who are paying for both their childcare and other people’s. Why are you struggling to understand that?

That is one interpretation of why people might disagree with you. It isn’t the case for me. V not only paid for all my children’s nursery places but also am not jealous of a £100,000 salary.

It’s just part of the bigger working environment here.

Benefits are huge and people cheat them all the time and nothing is done.

Taxes on higher earners are European average but we’re not getting European public services because the basic rate of tax is laughably low and the annual allowance is so high.

And we don’t even get the benefit of paying all of these taxes in childcare hours and unemployment benefit if we get made redundant. In countries like Denmark you get 75% of your previous salary for months if not years. Here we get treated the same as workshy wasters.

Where is the equity? Where is the appreciation for all the taxes we pay?

That's the insane bit.

A single high income can easily be much lower than a working couple after tax and childcare costs. It puts a lot of people (women) out of the workplace too because they would be effectively paying to work if they used childcare because it costs more than they'd earn.

So you get a pattern of couples with one single high income and a SAHP due to lack of free childcare worse off than a couple both on a median incomes who, as a household earn more but still quality for childcare. If the SAHP with the high single income partner decides to go back to work and has a low income, they can be even worse off because the cost of childcare is higher than the second parent's low income.

It's totally ridiculous.

Are you struggling to understand there isn’t a lot of difference between someone earning £99999.99 and £100000.00? Or that a two person house hold on £50k each is £1000 better off than one person on £125k even before childcare is taken into account? Or that a huge child care cost and a 62% tax marginal rate massively disincentives (if not outright makes it economically impossible) earning that over £100k? Are you struggling to understand the effects of disincentivising growth? Are you struggling to understand the concept of social contract and what happens when it’s broken? Are you struggling to understand why labour is so reviled?

Indeed. @Ohthatsabitshit seems totally clueless.