should higher income working parents get child care tax relief

[zippitippitoes]

..or would that mean the benefit would be spread so thinly that low income families would suffer?

If granny or sis wants to look after the kids then should they be able to be paid through government subsidy? Without formally becoming registered childminders.

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2233371,00.html\ david cameron on tax breaks for higher earners on childcare}

Exactly Eefs. Support for childcare would mean more workers and a higher birthrate.

Why is okey to make a difference between people when it comes to childcare? Surely then high earners should be made to pay for NHS treatment and pay more everytime they travel on trains too? I thought high earners are already taxed more than lower earners, so why do we have to pay more in childcare costs too?

Exactly eefs! Hear Hear!

Madameplatypus, yes, I meant that the tax relief for childcare would encourage women who wouldn't otherwise fint it worthwhile to go to work, and thus pay taxes that wouldn't have otherwise been paid.

Yes, CD, I suppoe someone who makes £15k would think I'm wealthy.

But, that's my point, it is "the wealthy" who are struggling. You have to be really poor or really rich for the system to work for you.

New job. That's what I need. A new fricken job.

You've all got me fired up. I'm off to find out who my MP is.

it could be said that high earners pay the market rate and low earners pay less, as they do for housing if they rent

Uwila, I would think that someone on £15k would be pretty offended by you saying that it's "the wealthy" who struggle!

Working isn't compulsory, if it isn't worth your while then you don't have to do it!

uwila I'm sorry but have to say this made me laugh

As I understand it, you have to be poverty sticken to get any real help with the cost of childcare. Isn't the threshhold something like £30k

I take it you don't think anyone earning under that is actually poverty stricken!

CD, what I meant was that if even people who are considered to be wealthy are struggling, then that says something about their definition of wealthy.

Of course someone who is making 15k but going to work and making an effort to support themselves needs help.

And, uh, in my life, working is compulsory.

Zippi, I meant that once you make something like 30k (and I'm not sure what the figure is) you don't get any help at all. And if you want enough help to actually make a difference then you have to be poverty stricken.

if you pay 150.00 per week for child care and get 80% paid through tax credits then you still have to pay the remainder of 30.00 which on a low income is quite a lot to find eg you earn 180.00 per week

Well that gives you a net pay of £1415, less than the cost of childcare alone. I can even accept CD's argument that the wealthy should not get the help that is offered to the needy (I don't entorely agree, but I could accept that). But, let's face it, we aren't talking about wealthy people here.

The question I would pose to the government is this: Do you or don't you want people to work?

I pay 1600 a month for 2 children in nursery and I also have a DD in after-school. It's not rocket science to work out that you have to be a very high earner to be able to afford this. If we were talking about 300 a month per child (fulltime) for a high earner and 150 a month for a lower earner so be it. The problem is good childcare is so expensive you have to have a very high income to afford it.

Zippi, I'm not saying that poor people shouldn't get childcare assistance. I'm saying they aren't the only ones who need help. And I'm saying the country as a whole would be better off ig people could afford to:
1- go to work
2- have children

I haven't read the whole thread properly but I'm going to throw my two pence worth in anyway.

Dh & I earn around 37K between us. We qualify for Child Tax Credit at around £40 per month but we don't qualify for Working Tax Credit. Dh works for a smallish local company and I work for a large plc - neither subscribes to the (voluntary) child care voucher scheme so we are left to pay childcare ourselves, we have one dd in full time nursery at around £600 per month.

I appreciate that this isn't much compared to what others, particularly those in London, pay. However it is a struggle to afford on what we earn. We don't live in a big house or drive flash cars, good job really as if we'd taken on a mammoth mortgage we'd be up sh*t creek financially now!

So definitely another vote here for tax breaks on childcare.

How's this for revolutionary? - let's make it acceptable & affordable for one parent to stay at home if they choose to.

Saggarmaker....
You are talking such sense! I would love to give up work, have another baby and bring my kids up myself. But as I earn more than dh there's no way I can give up work.

Why should I go to work to pay taxes to pay someone else to stay home? No thank you.

yes. i think childcare should come out of our gross income and not pay taxes on it at all.

If i were to stay home and mind my own, we would not be able to afford our mortgage and I would obviously not be paying tax either nor using my skills to educate the great unwashed .

Uwila, why should I work, be on the breadline and pay taxes so that someone who gets paid two or three times more than me gets tax relief on their childcare?

Havent read all of thread knee jerk answer to question is yes they should, because do you know what, they dont get any other concessions that lower paid folk get.

We worked out the other day that my dh xwife has more disposable income that we have because of the tax/family credit (whatever they call it now) and healthy income from my dh and the house plus her part time job in the garden centre.

Uwila, we pay our taxes for many things. I don't begrudge my taxes going to help a single parent stay with their child in it's formative years if that's best for both of them.

Tenalady, if you can manage, whats the problem?

This is why our services are in constant crisis - everybody wants more all of the time. Really, what's wrong with settling for what's enough?

I just love the "his wife Samantha has returned to work part time at Smythsons, the stationers" - have fantastic image of her standing behind a counter selling biros!