Childcare vouchers definitely going...

[morningpaper]

apparently

adding £2,400 to the childcare bill for top-tax earners

I got so so close, but I just pulled back at the last minute. I think I was just scared, and in the end decided we needed the money , but what money? It's not that much once you take childcare off.

Well I am on a career break and the only job there is to go back to is my old job. 50 miles away with hours between 8-4.
I can't do it, i just can't get the childcare so I can start on time. There is a nursery in the building but only for DD2 so that would mean DD1 would still have to go somewhere else and see me and DD2 drive off on a long commute down the M4 every day.
I would have got childcare vouchers i fI went back but they don;t help me, so my career break has bascially fucked everything up, I have to quit and get a low paid part time job nearer my home.
Great move there Jack.

I haven't read this whole thread so apols if I'm repeating someone else's gems.

The fact which the Labour govt is not taking into account, is that life in Britain in 2009 is blardy expensive. That's even before you begin taking into account the impact of the recession - for example, among people who are still employed and have the benefit of vouchers, many of them will have had to take pay cuts just to stay in a job. And now Gordy is planning to crush their finances even further. Having a job doesn't mean you're automatically living in the lap of luxury, so it shows very poor forethought that this benefit is being scrapped.

Secondly is the aim just to help poorer families get their children into nurseries? I.e. what about childminders? They are an invaluable source of high-quality childcare and should be supported by the government. Since all the well-publicised research shows that children under 3 thrive best in intimate childcare settings (i.e. with family or the next best thing) I hope the govt has taken this into account. As well as this it would boost the work of the self-employed women who look after children for a living.

Ah well.

The Gord giveth, and the Gord taketh away.

I'm just pissed off that this wasn't mentioned earlier, as have just paid through the nose (taxed too!) to have my nanny Ofsted registered so that I can use the voucher scheme at my work.

much as i will be upset to lose our £150 saving each month (especially as we struggle as it is), this still won't encourage me to vote tory. there are other ways we have been financially hit as we are both public sector workers (pay increases below inflation, so effectively a pay cut). but i think the tories can only do worse! i'm hoping there will be a u turn on this! does anyone know when they are planning to stop them?

Ok, so I've actually read about it now here (rather than rely on MN gossip), and this article suggests that:

a) applicants to the scheme will be accepted until 2011;

b) the system will be phased out by 2015.

So, basically, by announcing this policy change now, GB has decided that electoral defeat wasn't going to be enough, but that only electoral hari-kiri would do? Because everyone is now talking about the scheme being wrapped up, when in fact this isn't set to happen for over a year, plus there's still 6 years to run on it. That's 2 elections away (if he was going to make it that far...).

He'll have pissed off - for no good reason - a goodly chunk of potential voters. And there's just no way, to my mind, that the people at whom this change is aimed would:

a) actually vote in large enough numbers on the strength of extra nursery places to make a difference to Labour's result;

b) make a difference anyway, since - possibly - they are already Labour voters and therefore not going to "swing" it for him.

I can only imagine therefore that either:

a) this is a genuinely felt decision to target resources better, and he really does feel that - if he's going to go out - he may as well go out with conviction;

b) he's mad.

Either way, he's given the Tories ideas for when they get in.

One of the reasons I'm blardy cross about the phasing out of childcare vouchers is there seems to be a view amongst politicians that if you're on a reasonable salary then childcare and your life must be a breeze. When my children were small and in nursery I would wake up at 6.30am get myself ready wake them up at 7.00am dress them and bundle them into the car to get them to nursery for 8.00am. I'd get to work for 8.30am, do the shopping and pay bills in my lunchtime before picking the dc up at 5.00am.
As soon as I was home it was making dinner, bath and bedtime then doing the laundry. I was knackered. My dc were at a council nursery which was fab and for which we paid the full fees but I did use to get cross that the council gave free places to parents who were'nt working because they were deemed to be not coping with looking after their children. Often I'd be rushing out after drop off to get to work and I'd see them in their cars having a fag and listening to music at their leisure. So when we get a little help with our dc (childbenefit /childcare vouchers) and it gets taken away I question why do we bother making the effort.

Sorry it should read before "picking them up at 5pm"

Penth He doesn't want to get in next time, that would mean he'd have to clear up the fecking mess he's made.
Nope we'll have 10 years of Tory rule now where everyone is in sack clothes and burning furniture to keep warm and then when the country has suffered and got itself back on track with money in the bank again another Tony Blair will appear and the whole farce will start again.
It's all so predictable it's sickening, just make sure you save like mad whilst labour are in power because you'll need it.

I'm just wondering whether you have to have children to claim childcare vouchers? I'm 5 weeks pg with my first baby, and, assuming all goes well, I would be going back to my (public sector, childcare voucher-providing) job in about June 2011, too late for childcare vouchers. But if I was to start to claim them now, I could bank them up until I go on mat leave, then carry on getting them for another 5 years or whatever. There must be a catch somewhere, surely?

Gordon Brown does u-turn on childcare vouchers...

I'm still not voting for him even if he does a U turn. IMO he really just does'nt get it!

That man makes such a fool of himself ALL the time... I'm amazed.

I hear the U turn has happened. If anyone had read this thread (?!) it would not be surprising really.

oops, sorry, see I am late with the "news"!

Pah. Electoral suicide once again.

Well, here's from this higher rate taxpayer who will still definitely vote Labour despite all their cock ups.

The alternative is just too horrible, and I'm quite sure will have many many worse things up their sleeves.

Rofl - I'm so tired! I just saw this in active convos and read it through all confused thinking where have these people been? Did they miss a few months?!? Haha reading last post then looking at dates, I'm not crazy and neither is MN

LOL, it took me a while to cotton on too! This I do agree with though. It was crazy that higher earners got more money towards childcare.

Oh I didn't realise that, gaelicsheep! That is very wrong, indeed. So glad I can still use them. They mean a lot to us :)

Actually Gordon Brown wanted to scrap them altogether. There was a big protest and so it was changed to this policy. Put in place before the election so not a Coalition policy.

Huh? Who resurrected this ancient thread and why?

Wasn't there an announcement last weekend that these would be scrapped by the Tories?

Not as far as I know. They will just stop the higher rate tax relief as labour were going to.