Ooh Look. Gordon U-turns on childcare vouchers

[onebatmother]

Well I never.

well your dh's company at least has an office up here, come and share the easy breezy lifestyle, please.

Lucky you, obviously a nice area. I can't afford a three bed where I live either...

I know you aren't a fan of vouchers, and I have said that I share your concerns about their shortcomings. If they were being replaced with something better and fairer, that would be great. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be one of the options at the moment. If you want to start a campaign on that, I'll support it.

The fact that they were being scrapped altogether made me cross, and this half back-track makes me cross too. It will have a disproportionate impact on those in expensive areas, just as tax thresholds, stamp duty, childcare costs do. It is just another thing reducing the standard of living in those areas of our country and I think that that's very sad. I also think it's being sold by politicians as basically cutting the benefit to the fat cats, when most of the people who benefit are nothing of the sort. Simplistic in the extreme.

Signing off now as I'm off to watch Dr Who (recorded). If you start that campaign, I'll put my name down...

the point is, though, that i will move if i want something else.

I think that a climb-down sounds better than "Scrapping Childcare vouchers for higher tax payers" which is the actual story...

Oh well I'm still fucked then. Shat on again for having the audacity to earn reasonably well and be a single mother.

A much simpler and cost effective system would be to recognise the cost of childcare within the existing child benefit system. The added advantage would be that we would reward SAHM. Easy peasy and no extra admin cost, which usually trumps the actual benefit.

why would sahms need rewarding if they're not using childcare, i don't understand.

Right dh, we're possibly getting divorced; it's cheaper that way.

Off to get a calculator.

I don't see how you can justify subsiding childcare for anyone who isn't paying tax

Not BEFORE we've overthrown the whole capitalism thing

subsiDISING

SAHMs are shafted by the taxation system. With separate taxation, spouses are not able to use their SAH spouse's personal allowance.

The £43,875 limit - is that per income or joint income?

Per income Heated. You qualify for the vouchers based on your own salary, not household income (hence a couple benefitting twice as much as a lone parent so don't sign the divorce papers just yet).

coincidentally £43k seems to be the joint income threshold above which one gets nothing towards childcare from working tax credit.

ribenaberry i live in london too and work f/t. dh is self employed so we get £243 a month in vouchers and while that is nice it is hardly a crucial part of my childcare expenses. and i'd never complain about the utter luxury of having to pay higher rate tax.

pssst, shona. wanna buy a house? bargain, one-fifty grand, three beds.

Yeah - I want that house . Actually, that's the one up the Drum isn't it?

I'm never quite sure about this expensive area thing. Or its 'i've got an enormous mortgage to support' cousin.

Most people who live in expensive areas could move to a cheaper one if they wanted to, but (quite understandably) don't want to.

I know that I'm making a choice to live in a v tiny house in the nicest part of London I can afford. I could live in a bigger house in a cheaper part of London. Or I could - more problematically - move to a cheaper part of the country. My choice, to a degree.

Not to say I'm not hugely sympathetic - I feel v bitter meself about the fundamental iniquity of the extent to which quality of life varies from area to area. That's down to social inequality, which is down to the political system we choose.

But I wouldn't expect to be treated differently from those who chose to live in a crappier area to avoid high costs. They are also suffering through the same iniquity, aren't they?

Interested to hear other views though.

Thanks Shona.

Will tell Dh to cancel plans for bachelor flat the shed.

Aunt's dd, lone parent, was told re vouchers that the Govt assumes that both mother and father contribute to child's upbringing and share childcare costs, so in theory both benefit. Not true in her case.

i'm with you, onebat. especially when for the last decade or so, having an enormous mortgage also meant having an enormous pot of bubbling, growing cash upon which to retire. (still will, of course, with no social housing to speak of prices will recover again).

I agree onebat

I don't get it at all

If you're really unhappy with your mortgage but have you live in London, why not buy a crappy ground-floor one-bed flat off the Old Kent Road? (n.b. It used to be mine)

onebat i do live in a bigger house in a shittier part of london. but i am from london so going elsewhere means i burn my boats.

lol mp. And yyy to pension fund aitch, forgot about that.

I agree with you onebat - I choose to live in inner London where transport links are brilliant because it means I can have a CM and go to work. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to get there and back in time to pick up my DS.

I suppose I could up sticks and move to a cheaper city but my family all live here and I really need the support - both financially and emotionally.

I have always thought it was a bit pants the fact that couples could both claim the allowance but I expect those people will leave the country now, what with the howwibly cwuel 50% income tax rate coming in and all ...

yes I'm from london too, fishie. How does that impact the boat-burning though?

yeah me and DH are from London too

London's ACE, it's the centre of the WORLD, the UNIVERSE and EVERYTHING

but there we are