Does everyone think childcare should be paid for?

[Cococomellon]

I have seen a lot of posts in social media about the cost of childcare, that it should be free and all the reasons in favour of that such as allowing both parents to work and the impact on the economy.

I can see how this would be a benefit. I have a young child and pay for childcare but I planned for this and it is not a surprise to me.

Who pays for this "free" childcare? Is there spare money the government has squirrelled somewhere? Should we all pay more taxes? Will the nhs get even less funding? Schools?

Perhaps I am just very right wing as I don't see to see the counter- arguments but I'm sure many people (some who don't have children) don't want to pay for others children to go to nursery?

It is in everyone's interest, including the childless/child free, to have an educated population and workforce that is why it is paid for from taxes. I see no reason why this could not include childcare where both parents choose to work and pay tax.

We live in an ageing population so unless people are incentivised to have children the problems were seeing in nhs and social care are just going to get worse. Short term vs long term viewpoint. Yes, more subsidised childcare would cost more taxes but in 20 years time when we have no state pension and no state social care we may regret not funding childcare now.

I don't have kids

I am happy to pay for subsidised child care because all too often expensive/lack of childcare forces women to stay in abusive relationships, damages their career etc

Its all very well saying children are a choice, but its a choice that impacts women and I choose to support women

What I would also like to see is more support for parents who want to stay at home for say 3 years. Bring back sure start centres, increase respite support for children with disabilities, better programs for parents looking to re enter the workforce etc

And I don't think this entirely has to be funded by the taxpayer. The reality is that currently the tax payer is funding profits for big organisations through paying universal credit to people in full time employment because they don't earn enough to live.

Legislation around salaries and profits could mean that we wouldn't have these massive cost of living crisis and people could be paid appropriately lowering the burden on the taxpayer, or leaving more money free to support all areas of society.

Perhaps there would be less sense of entitlement to help if big corporations were not currently forcing part of our workforce into needing help, in order to bolster their profits? Its not entitlement when it's survival.

I do however think the fees need to be assessed and the government should potentially look at ‘windfall’ taxes on providers charging over a certain amount to encourage lower fees. Or for the government to set a max fee, as they’ve gone up 40%+ in the last 10 years which is well above inflation and min wage increases

Oh come on

It's been years, years since benefits were available for more than 2 children. Yet still people bang on about having children for benefits with the regularity of a daily mail columnist

Harsh as it may sound to some, that is the reality.

I think it would be great if childcare costs were cheaper and I say this as someone without kids because why would someone choose to work when the cost of childcare for a lot of women wipes out most of their income - therefore it becomes an obvious choice for many to take time out of work.

However this issue as I see it is that there is such a gender gap in the first place - why is it women are often usually the lower earner and therefore it makes sense for them to be the ones to take the year off?

But then I also think (unpopular opinion) women feel entitled to have long time off work even after the recovery from childcare many want the time off - it often isn't about the money for a lot of women so if childcare is cheaper I'm not convinced it would encourage many more back to work that wouldn't have been in work in the first place without cheaper childcare

I currently pay a fortune for childcare but a colleague from a country where it is free told me to be grateful because the care is very high quality here in comparison to his (wealthy EU) country, where the ratios of staff to children are poor. This basically stopped me whinging, and made me content to keep paying.
Being free could have an impact on quality.

S@Alfiexx1 that's completely ignoring the changes in legislation requiring more staff and wayyyy more paperwork. It all costs. As do all their supplies.

Also if the Govt gets more involved in childcare provision, fewer people will be able to afford to be child carers & there will be a sever shortage.

In theory, child care being free makes sense. More workers is better for the economy.

in practice, cheap child care isn’t what I wanted when my child was young. I found her quality care and I paid for it. Yes, I was in a very privileged position to be able to afford that luxury. It wasn’t something we were willing to compromise about though. We had to manage our budget carefully during that time but that was our priority.

I would be incredibly skeptical of whatever free program was put in place. Every piece of evidence says that it would be done as cheaply as possible and that while basic safety would be met, that isn’t sufficient for young child development.

What about women who want to look after their own children, like I did? Will the government pay me to stay at home?

Exactly this.

It gives women choices. It levels the playing field for young people - which is why people who don't work or have low incomes get 15 free hours per week from when their children are 2.

Yes, we chose to have children. But then many people make choices that cost the taxpayer - eg an unhealthy lifestyle - that are funded.

The accounts for the nursery we use for DD show a very, very healthy cash flow.

Staff aren’t paid well yet we pay £2500 a month. It’s definitely extortionate.

What …that’s not what’s being discussed

Why would they?

Kindly you staying at home doesn’t benefit the wider population like a parent working, contributing to the economy does.

No I don’t think it should be paid for, I’m a SAHM due to the cost of childcare and my DH work schedule, why should anybody subsidies my choice to have children! The money would have to come from somewhere, where? We don’t even have enough to pay NHS staff a decent wage.

I take your point but you wont be psying tax if you stay at home.

I was lucky enough to get almost free childcare as a working single parent in Lewisham in the early 80s. It enabled me to work then to go to university and get a degree. I never needed to claim benefits and after graduation was able to work, pay taxes and eventually buy my own home. I am eternally grateful for that chance.

Child care should never be paid for by the government

I stayed home to look after mine as well
mine had disabilities and no childcare would take one of them.
turned out no school would either ,so I was at home a long long time with no support and not through choice…..other than the fact I chose to have children..
I’m possibly/ probably a bit bitter …

@Cococomellon we don't qualify for free hours so swallow the nursery fees on my husband's salary. They're crippling. I have chronic health issues so this affects how much I can work and what we can claim (which turns out to be nothing). We end up leaning heavily on grandparents, god knows what we'd do without them. Imo the whole free 30 hours thing needs reviewing as it's skewed heavily in favour of low earners. The middle earners get screwed over.

As some others have said, it is not simply about “paying for other people’s childcare”. There are significant economic reasons for doing so. People currently are not being incentivised to have children. My childcare costs will be £2k per month for one child, and therefore we will only have one. Many of my friends will do the same, one or even none. When the true effects of an ageing population become clear, everyone will wish having children had been heavily incentivised.

My dc are much too old for it to make a difference to me, but I’d be in favour of free childcare available for two children at any one time. Ideally alongside a massive investment and overhaul of the current system so that nursery workers are paid a decent wage and it is considered a worthwhile career. It might be expensive but there would be huge benefits to society, and that’s what our taxes are supposed to be for. Money would be saved on the benefits bill because the barrier to working would be removed and society’s attitude would change so that it was seen as a luxury to have a SAHP, as it should be.

Funding schemes do not work... the current one is causing childcare providers to run at a loss and many are closing or having to increase fees for unfunded care periods significantly.

In my view it would be better if Government made it simple. For every £1 spent on childcare, £1 came off the parents Income Tax/NI bill. There could be problems for those who did not work much though, as they may have childcare costs higher than the amount of Income Tax/NI paid but maybe that could be resolved by keeping a childcare element in Universal Credit and amending eligibility for UC so someone could theoretically claim just that childcare element if they did not qualify for anything else.

Having Government provide funded hours but only paying £4ish per hour does not work when it costs providers more than that to provide the care.

Not sure, but it does annoy me that unemployed parents get free childcare, very illogical.

I don't have children (and never will) but I think childcare should at least be completely tax free, the same as pensions. It benefits society if parents can work and free or low cost childcare benefits women particularly. I also think education and healthcare need to be better funded, as does social care. And there needs to be more social housing, particularly for families.

I'd pay for it by raising taxes for everyone not on PAYE. So increase corporation tax, dividend taxes, capital gains etc. People on PAYE get screwed over. I'd also add capital gains tax to primary residences to try to reduce growth in house prices until wage inflation makes buying a home affordable again.

It's worth noting that economic growth under successive Tory governments has been crap. Austerity (cutting spending on essential public services) doesn't work.