Removing the cap on tax-free childcare *Would appreciate if you could please read/sign*

[Nichelette]

Like many of us here, we utilise tax-free childcare. We both work full-time through need (whilst I think some time at nursery is good for him and it is a personal choice for everyone, I'd love to be p/t to spend more time with my son as leaving him for 50 hours a week saddens me). This is compounded by our huge nursery bill.

The tax-free scheme is capped at £500 per quarter which only covers around 3 or slightly less days. Our annual nursery bill is nearly 15k once the tax free part is deducted. This is average for our area (SE) and more than our mortgage.

This issue has been in the media a lot recently due to the cost of living so I'm trying to bring about some positive change to help families by getting the cap on tax-free childcare removed so it can be applied to the entire childcare bill.

I understand that this won't apply to lots of you (perhaps it would have in the past), but I'd appreciate if you could please sign the below to help those who it does. It's likely that even if you aren't affected personally, someone you know is. Please also feel free to share with any other parents/sympathisers. The more signatures I can collect the greater the chance of change.

chng.it/jQYpRZtJ

If you would like to know more about the scheme please click here: www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare

Signed.

I would like to see the income cap removed too - and for 30 hours. A household income of £100k in the SE is not a huge amount; why shouldn't we get the 30 hours?

Thank you!

Yes I agree. In SE/London it doesn't go far especially if you have high housing costs like many of us do.

I definitely agree with both points raised above, and that they would both support parents to work and pay more tax, so win win all round.

Bump for you

It's not household income though, it's if one parent earns over £100k (after deductions, pension etc)

Thanks :)

Unfortunately this isn't the only thing that is a bit rubbish. Off the top of my head:
*Child benefit stopping with one partner on 50k but two on 49k is fine (surely it should be a joint cap if one has to exist?)
*No free hours at 2 if you don't qualify for benefits, but if only one partner works, unless high earning you're unlikely to be able to afford to pay for any (this would probably be us if only one of us was working)
*Free hours at 3 starting the term after their birthday (my early April son will be nearly 3.5 by the time he qualifies)
*Free hours at 3 only covering term time despite them not being at school yet. Probably a headline grabber, but I'd rather they said 20 over the year (or whatever it works out as). I think that catches a lot of people out.

I'm not knocking any help, but none of the above really seems sensible.

@bumpytrumpy as you say the £100k limit is either parent which seems very unbalanced, better in my view to have a household allowance of say £160k which would allow households with partners earning vastly different amounts to still have some support. Same with child benefit. Even if it's a lower level, maybe 20 hours a week...

My understanding is it's not household income but rather the highest income of one family member.

I agree and will sign this, I know the nursery or childminders don’t earn much per hour but because of long hours it certainly adds up.

This would be a good way of helping childcare business and parents alike.

Thank you to everyone who has signed. I really appreciate it. I know it's a long shot with anything govt related, but I'm going to continue trying to gather support and hopefully bring about some change.

I do not agree with removing the income cap.

@astbdjlutcchjj do you not think that there could be a cap but applied in a fairer way?

Oooh this has been a school day! I thought it was cumulative £100k.

It's nuts that people who work don't get any support at 2, but those on UC do. I know it's about helping the opportunities of the children from v low income families, I don't resent them that at all, but it still stings when I'm paying >£1500 per month of post-tax income to nursery while being exhausted from work and missing my child.

Why's that? If there must be a cap, which I disagree with, it seems deeply unfair that it's standard across the country when cost of living is so much higher in the SE/London, not proportional to wages.

I feel the same about the hours at 2. Happy for others to have them, but sad I miss my son so much for so little.

We're hoping to have a second, and with the current 2k cap, even when he eventually gets some free hours it would be the difference between me losing over 100% of my salary vs about 100% if the cap is removed. If it happens I'm literally going to have to weigh up whether the destruction to my pension, future prospects, financial security (unfortunately things don't always go as planned and I'm wary of having to rely on DH entirely) and no time with children/exhaustion from working is actually worth it.

Signed. I work 3 days a week as it literally wouldn't pay me to work 4 due to childcare costs. When our son went aged 1 it was £950 a month for the 3 days which was also more than our mortgage. The cost of childcare was part of us delaying having our second child as we didn't see how we could afford for me to work at all if we had 2 children close together. Something needs to change as the current system is crazy. I heard on radio 4 today they were saying 60% of parents who are eligible for tax free childcare don't claim it. I suspect this is partly because the scheme is very poorly advertised and partly because the online system is a nightmare to navigate at times.

To be honest we'd probably leave it until DS is at school to have another because of the childcare cost, but because I wanted to be in secure housing before we had any I was exactly a month short of 36 by the time he arrived. I was 37 last month and don't want to be over 40 because of additional risks and declining fertility so we're trying again now.

That's really interesting about the uptake level. I know it's poor but didn't realise it was that low. I've been trying to share the link anywhere I've shared this to help raise awareness. As it is, it's not perfect but better than nothing.

Signed !

I agree with all your points !

I would absolutely love to be able to stay at home with my babies until they start school... but DH works only slightly above minimum wage and only 35hours/week so I'm the breadwinner. I'll be going back to work after my mat leave and will have one in the pre-school room
and the twins in the baby room. We're going to run at a deficit for the next few years.

I'm sorry, that sounds hard. Twins were something I researched before being pregnant as there have been 3 twin pregnancies between my mum and youngest sister. I couldn't believe families with multiples get no extra financial help.

Quick update... The petition is very nearly at 900 signatures now which is great, though obviously the more the better. The cap hasn't risen since the scheme was introduced 5 years ago so I think it's definitely time for a change, especially as a lot of nurseries will be increasing the price of places due to the current economic situation.

I was contacted by someone at change.org who works in a team that try to boost petitions that they think have a good chance of success, and they are going to look at contacting the media about this. Around 300k use the scheme, so if I could even reach a fraction of these it would be really helpful. I'd also love to raise awareness as it seems that there are a lot of people who are eligible for the scheme but not using it.