Pre-budget report: what do you think?

[LunarSeasonsGreetings]

The main family/child related points from Gordon Brown's speech....

Paid maternity leave is to be extended from 6 to 9 months by 2007 - with an ultimate goal of one year. Parents will also have the ability to transfer paid maternity leve from then mother to the father. He also said he would be increasing the rights to flexible working for those employees with young children.

He also promised that free nursery education for three and four-year-olds would be increased to 15 hours a week from April 2007.

Employers will be able to offer an extra £50 a week for child care, free of tax and National insurance.

He is also to provide funds so that schools could stay open from 8am to 6pm for pre- and after-school care for children of working parents

Sorry Motherinfestivemood - I'm lucky that dh's salary means that the £100 was not essential but of course it must be difficult if that is what you are relying on. It's nowhere near enough for many people I can imagine.

I was a bit insensitive there and I'm sorry.

The problem as I see it (and I'm not sure what the solution is, except more money) is that the money I get back in nursery vouchers does not go anywhere near to covering the cost of 12.5 hours a week in a private nursery, whereas I would get those hours totally free in a state nursery. I've worked out that I get £3.10 per hour to cover the 12.5 hours (based on 33 weeks per year) and that is nothing like the cost of nursery! Also, there is no weighting for London/SE, so I am penalised by having to pay for a much more expensive nursery too.

Agree with your last comment CB

PamiNativity - I hadn't thought of that - how much do we get in those grants per 2.5 hr session, do you know?

Our nursery just works out what we owe and I pay it so I don't know how it's broken down.

Gobbledigoose - this term I got £426. Multiplied by 3 = £1,278. Divided by 33 weeks and 12.5 hours gives £3.10 per hour. ie £38.75 per week.

hmm yes, not much is it?! wonder how they came up with that?

I just wish they would contribut to the childcare that working parents have already arranged. Reading this, it is clear that we have Gordon Brown standing up offering something that doesn't actually equate to what he offered when it comes to paying the bill. AND, it isn;t really pratical to the people it is supposed to help. Childcare that comes on duty at 8:00 and finishes at 6:00 is no good for me because it doesn't allow me the required travel time to get to/from my work. My childcare needs to start at 7:00 or 7:30 and end at 6:30 or 7:00. This requires a nanny / au pair. And there is no help there. None. Zilch.

So PN just to be nosy - how much are your nursery fees a day?

I think relatively speaking I do quite well out of the grant because I only work 3 days so I get the £38.75 knocked off that just as someone who worked 5 days would get it knocked off their higher bill.

DS's nursery is £28/day but we get bills averaged out at £350/calendar month. This is a total of £4200 a year so the grant is nearly a third of this. From January it will be £30/day, mind you.

Don't know about PN, but I think full time nursery places in SE London / Surrey / Middlesex run around £1000/month.

So if mine were full time (and I think its pretty standard for this area) it would be about £600/month. But of course we do tend to get paid less as well.

Actually thinking about it - £30 for 10 hours is £3 an hour so the £38.75 is more than covering this for me.

I'll have to come back to you on that one, CB, but it's somewhere in the region of £45 (which includes 10% sibling discount)per day for dd1, 4 days a week. My employer contributes £30 per week which I'm taxed on.
In total I pay £1550 per month MYSELF in nursery fees for dd1 and dd2, which is for 4 days a week. My employer pays a further £130 to the nursery each month. I then get the nursery grant refund each term.
It's depressing me just to think about it!

I suppose the simple truth is that Childcare will keep us in the poor house until we have both of our kids in a free public school. And, since DD is 20 months old, and D? will be residing in my belly until May we have several years to go.

I wonder what the Torries will propose? Probably something similar. Of course it will have to be a little bit different or they would have nothing to bicker over as they approach the election (which I unfortunately can't vote in anyway).

Was disappointed that I do not get a sibling discount for DD but the other numbers I have worked out this afternoon have cheered me up. Because December is the first month I will have to pay in full for both DS and DD (ie with no grant reduction).

Why the £100 a week for self-employed people pees me off so much is because if I had a job as an employee the government would reimburse my employer all the costs of my maternity leave - 90% of salary for six weeks plus the rest. I still pay tax just as I did as employee, so why do we self-employed people not get the same benefits? It basically means I can't have maternity leave - unless I borrow large sums of money, which I may end up doing and still having a short maternity leave. I have bills to pay that aren't going away just because I am having a baby.

True aloha - I started working again about 4 weeks after ds was born because I just couldn't afford not to. I was bloody knackered.