A message from Harriet Harman - Minister for Women and Equality - how is the credit crunch/recession is affecting you and how do you think Government can help?

[JustineMumsnet]

Harriet Harman writes:
We want to protect families from the credit crunch with real help. And we want to hear what Mumsnet are concerned about during this recession; what you want us to be doing about it; and what you want to see changed for the future. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is hosting an international Economic Summit in London (which President Obama will be coming to) in April to agree with other countries how we work together to get the global economy back on its feet and growing again. I want to hear from you and feed your views in to this summit.

Opinion polls tell us that women are more concerned about the impact of the recession than men, is that your view?
Is the recession affecting your family life and if so how?
Are you getting the advice and information you need if you ask for help?
What do you want to see government doing to help with that?
What do you think about bonuses?
How can we help women who want to start their own businesses?

I am just being polite.

Recession not particularly affecting us at the moment, except in the general sense of unease that is around. I think (hope) that our jobs are fairly secure for now. We have a fairly large mortgage (but lots of equity), so in fact lower interest rates are a good thing for us- curently remortgaging to a tracker which keeps getting cheaper! We are mainly planning on spending the amount we save on overpaying the mortgage, but also on doing home improvements so hopefully investing for the future resale value of hte house and also helping keep small local tradesmen going.

I completely agree that one of the main things the government could do for women in the workplace, whether self employed or not, is make childcare fully tax deductible; or at the very least make the child care voucher scheme compulsory rather than at the employers' discretion. I'm very lucky in my current job that I have a workplace nursery, so the full amount is payable by salary sacrifice, and it makes a big difference. It seems very unfair that if one has to use a private nursery (as I did before), only about half or less of the cost of a full time place is tax free. It is a necessary expense of working. And in particular in relation to encouraging women (or indeed men) to start small businesses, childcare surely has to be tax deductible for the self employed and small business owners, it would be crippling otherwise and totally skew the value of the business; doing this would mean those with children could start work on an equal basis with those without, at least in financial terms.

Schools having to provide before and after school care would also help. Locally to me, there is no nursery or afterschool club for children once they are in KS2. The local school has a breakfast club run by a local nursery (which I use on an occasional ad hoc basis if I have an early meeting), but apparently the nursery would happily run an afterschool club too but has been told there is no room (the school is virtually unused after hours so this can't be the whole story - I assume staffing or priorities are the issue - but the school shouldn't be able to put a stop to this so simply). If I worked a normal 9-5 (well actually normal in my professional university educated world is 8-6 or 7, who am I kidding), there is no way my husband and I could both work without using a childminder (none available locally), or being lucky enough to have grandparents locally (which professionals don't tend to have as we move about so much). Lucky I work in a very flexible job and am able to pick up from school myself some days, and share with other working mums on others, but it is a stressful patchwork.

For what its worth, I don't blame the government for this crisis - I imagine very much the same would have happened under any political party, as the govt and party politics have generally left the city to get on with it, and are largely at the mercy of international corporations and trends anyway. It would be great if this crisis could be an opportunity, as someone said earlier, for the govt to take more control. The Guardian's feature recently on tax avoidance by big companies was very interesting...
I quite like Gordon Brown, he seems to have a sober and serious head on him, just the sort of leader I want rather than an image obsessed smooth talker. It seems to me that taking a big share in the banks should be quite a good deal for the taxpayer long term as they have to pay back the money at a very good interest rate - perhaps remind the media of this?!
This may be too much to hope for, but my plea is that you please don't get swayed by wanting to get re-elected into doing short term fixes rather than the right thing for the country. The risk of party politics has always seemed to me that there is a huge temptation placed in front of politicians (as I'm sure you're only too well aware of) to do what will make you popular rather than what you actually think the country needs, when the two don't coincide. This may be one of those moments....

And as others have said, thanks for asking! I do hope you actually read this, or at least get an executive summary from a researcher....

"apparently the nursery would happily run an afterschool club too but has been told there is no room (the school is virtually unused after hours so this can't be the whole story - I assume staffing or priorities are the issue - but the school shouldn't be able to put a stop to this so simply)"

Is your school a PFI? If so then they are only a tenant and have no control over the buildings outside of contracted hours.

Is it affecting family life?
Yes there is no escape from it now it is in the general consiousness of society now. Children asking questions and being v. generous with their pocket money by putting it in the savings jar we have. Utilities going up. Everone is already being affected.
Advice and help. Well as a review of my council tax and child tax credit are up at the same time. A joint aproach re: criteria would be very helpful, i.e. Child tax say don't put your child maintenance down as it is not considered 'income' and Council tax has written to ask when my maintenace had stopped and why didn't I tell them, child maintenance is included as any other income but no there is no box to tick for it or explanation.
To help women start their own business. I think government agencies should stop being so patronising. I've been on 3 day 'courses' where 2 days were taken up with appearance! Serious consideration should be paid to grant criteria to enable women in real life to actually do it. Practical support by profesional people and not companies 'set up' to provide this supposrt as in my experience these companies just pass you on anyway and you've gained nothing from them.
Bonuses. They should only be given to those who deserve them as they were designed for,so none should go to those 'fatcats' now should it.

Yes the credit crunch is affecting my family greatly. I was made redundant from Local Government end of last year (end of my maternity leave) due to essential cost cutting otherwise known as "restructuring". My husband's hours are going to be dropped from full time to, well anything really its yet to be confirmed with the potential for redundancy looming over our heads daily.

Food prices, energy prices etc have all stretched our budget to way beyond its means. We are managing but only just - there is nothing spare should anything happen!

I have just started claiming JSA for the first time in my life. There are limited jobs where I live with so many people applying for one job its hard to remain motived. Numbers at the job centre are visibly increasing every week. The tax credit system is far to complicated, phone calls to change details can take along time and security checks are ridiculous How am I supposed to know my previous employers BACs number when I haven't been getting a payslip for the last 8 months and am trying to contact them while fighting off a toddler whois trying to hang up the phone for me?

Childcare, childcare, childcare!!! Its a massive expense for us and for anyone with children. I get no help with childcare to attend interviews and have to rely on friends and family which is not always possible. When I do find a job I will be lucky to make a few hundred a month extra after paying for childcare. I will probably be worse off than being on benefits.

Bonus's shouldn't even be considered at times like this. I appreciate people work hard (I used to be one of them!)but when I see my friends losing their jobs and in somecases houses, I don't know how it can be justified.

I would love the opportunity to start my own business but having a 16mth old, no money and limited family help its an impossibilty,

The recession is affecting my family because my DH is about to be made redundant for the 2nd time in less than a year. His firm are relocating abroad. Previously he had worked for the same company for 27 years!

We are not getting advice and all the information we are getting is limited as so many are in a similar position we have had 1 big employer shutting down for a few months and several others have closed completely.

What do you want to see government? I do not know what they can do. If I knew the answer to that I would be the PM

What do you think about bonuses? Tricky one, If you mean the bonuses for the bankers its disgusting they have at some level failed and yet they still get a bonus!

How can we help women who want to start their own businesses? Not all women want to start their own businesses, some just want jobs which give consideration to the fact our children will always be more important than the job. That is not to say that we wouldn't be loyal and hardworking just that as mothers our children come first. Why at interviews are we still asked about our childcare arrangements and what would happen if our children are ill when men arent asked the same?

I dont want a million pound job for my DH just a decent job that allows us to live at the standard we are at now. (we only own 1 car, don't holiday aborad or even every year, children (or us) dont have designer clothes, we dont go out, dont drink, dont smoke. etc)

I think that giving all individuals a tax code would work. Then allow that tax code to be given to whoever needs it (eg 2 adults @ £8000 and 3 children @£4000 each - so the family gets £28,000 tax free. If they earn less than that they get Tax credits to top it up if they earn above it they pay tax on it - don't look at the figures it's the idea)

Maybe?

Is the recession affecting your family life and if so how?

Yes, in unexpected ways. I have been trying to change careers and have what would have been well above the requisite training and edication for this, but everytime I go for an interview, I?m told that employers are ?spoilt for choice?, that there are so many overqualified people now in the job market and that it?s incredibly tough to get on the new career ladder. Having been for a few interviews like this recently, I?ve decided to study for my MSc and hopefully go on to PhD ? I?ll have to do this with a career development loan. Hopefully this will help us weather the recession and I will be in a good position to get a job after.

The main way it is affecting us however is that we would like to have another baby. We have one son. I am 38. DP wants us just to go for it and as much as I?d like to have another child, I am fearful that the extra cost and stress will risk what we have at the moment. Me and DP are both self employed with a massive mortgage ? it?s really not certain that we will be able to maintain the house throuout the recession, if work for either of us drops off. With the recession looking like it will go on for a few years, I may well be too old to have another child when the market and work perks up.

Are you getting the advice and information you need if you ask for help?
No

What do you want to see government doing to help with that?

I really don?t know.

What do you think about bonuses?

Bonuses for what? Bonuses for activities people already enjoy is known to devalue the activity, and for people to get less enjoyment out of it and for productivity to go down. Bonuses for shitty jobs are probably essential, but enabling people to set themselves up and work in the area they enjoy, is the best deal for everyone. That?s a bonus in itself. Is there a differnece between a start-up grant, study grant and a bonus? I don?t know. I want to study towards PhD and will have to get into debt to do that. I already owe £8000 in student loans, have a £2000 student overdraft and now will have to get into abother £8000 debt for my MSc, but hopefully, I will be on course to get a studentship award at the end of that. But the debt is terrifying, especially at the beginning of a recession ? but weighing up our options ? this seems the most prudent path in the long run. I still work part time, and DP full time. Both self employed though and we feel very insecure at the moment.

How can we help women who want to start their own businesses?

Carry on fighting the recession.

I would like to know when Gordon Brown is going to publicly accept responsibility for the part he played in creating this crisis when he was chancellor.

The cost of childcare is this country is nothing short of crippling. I employ childcare for the SOLE purpose of going to work. Why is every penny I pay to childcare not tax deductible?

Dear Harriet,

I appreciate you asking for our opinion.

If I were Gordon Brown I would make the banks that we own, as a nation, a large part of, no longer able to repossess people unless every avenue has been explored.

I work in Homelessness so we are seeing the worse side of the recession. Can I ask that you consider the following:

1. To start ensuring that if people return to work that they are better off working than if they claim benefits (by a top up NOT by reducing benefits!)

1. to keep improving domestic violence services so that every council has a domestic violence team that can implement a range of assistance to women (and men).

3.improve the relationship between NASS and housing services so that refugees need not come through the homelessness system. as this is bad for everyone.

4.make the banks let people take mortgage holidays, if they repossess now they may actually lose even more money as the houses may not sell, or will sell at a loss. It is therefore in everybodies' interest to keep them in their home for as long as possible

Also stop the ridiculous bank charges that go to pay the criminal bonuses.

thank you for asking and even more so for doing

I'm outraged at the audacity and greed - and sheer hide - of banks issuing bonuses when we're all worried about how we're going to keep our jobs and survive, and it's our taxes that have saved their jobs from their own greed-generated foolishness. And let's talk again about greed - the ministers taking enormous chunks of cash for their second homes, when so many of us are either losing the only homes we've got, or can't even afford to buy one at all. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others, isn't that right?!

Yes definitely agree with other posters that the cost of childcare provision is ludicrous in UK compared with the Continent.

Also, free nursery places may not help working parents at all financially although they are good pre-school preparation: we dropped our 3 year old son at directly at playgroup in the morning for his free 2 1/2 hours so the childminder wasn't required until she collected at midday. We naively thought our childcare costs would decrease from when he was with the childminder full-time. NO, we still had to pay for a full-time place otherwise she wouldn't take him as she wanted a full-time child. So the government was helping her to have an easier life but not us at all.

You're seriously expecting someone in the Labour government to have her finger on the pulse of real British society?!

LOL!

Dear Harriet,
It's like Louis Armstrong's response to the question, 'What is jazz?': Man, if you have to ask, you're never gonna know.

I'd like to see the government help families by setting Jobseekers' Allowance (or whatever it's called now) at a level based on previous salary (like they do in France). This would take a lot of pressure off families where the main bread-winner is made redundant, and seems much more fair.

The high cost of living drove us out of London and away to rent in the Norfolk countryside to buy some time and to work out where we could afford to live. We had to sell out house as we could no longer afford the mortgage once I had had a child. Maternity pay as a teacher combined with a stupidly high mortgage meant I would have had to return to teaching when my child was 3 months old! Given that all the Heath advice is about breastfeeding for the first 6 months etc this is problematic.

As a teacher I adored teaching in inner London schools and it was with a heavy heart I realised that I could no longer do this as I could not afford anything bigger that a 2 bed flat...if that. As it was the Etime spent in Norfolk bought us enough time to realise where we wanted to live (i.e not there) and with property prices going down we moved back down south and are currently renting in a Hertfordshire commuter town and watching property prices with interest.

1. I would like to see the Government reviewing teacher's maternity pay (4 weeks full pay?!)

1. I would like to see the Government regulating childcare costs. Nurseries here costs £58 a day! It's ridiculous. When I lived in Norfolk it was £30 a day. Surely no nursery should be able to charge so much! If I have another baby I would be better off not working!

1. I think the bonus culture has driven up house prices (and childcare costs) in London and the surrounding areas meaning housing in nicer areas is out of the price range of most people on £30/40 000 a year salaries (i.e most people I know). I have used key worker housing schemes and they take such a percentage of your equity when you sell you would have been better off taking a 100%/95% mortgage! If both of you earn this kind of yearly salary you don;t qualify for tax credit or help with childcare.

Two words.

Credit unions

Please encourage local authorities to set them up ON THE HIGH STREET. Preferably right next door to any Brighthouse (shops that goods at high rate of interest) or similar.

Is the recession affecting your family life and if so how?
Not directly as we are both in very front line public service jobs. But the cost of living has effected us. Strangely one good point of this, it has curbed my husbands enthusiasm for obtaining credit. He now understands that the value of the house is meaningless. That saving are important even if you receive very little interest.
Please re introduce Commerce in Secondary School Education. He did Latin I did Commerce.
Are you getting the advice and information you need if you ask for help?
No never. I have not trusted Independent financial advisers as they have never been independent and always what to sell you a product and great profit to them. I have never been in debt.
We are worried now about our pensions.
What do you want to see government doing to help with that? I would like to see truly independent financial advisers and debt advisers. Unlikely I know.
What do you think about bonuses?
I do not agree that bankers should get bonuses if the tax payer has bailed them out.
How can we help women who want to start their own businesses?
Good childcare at affordable rates. Good low cost advice re tax. Business property rents capped.

And what about the impact of the cost of the ID Card scheme? Will the Labour Government come to it's senses and admit this scheme is not financially viable, as they have said in Scotland?

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7890180.stm

NO ID cards. Data cannot be guaranteed protected. No to every child on National data base. Unworkable and unsafe. Leave average family some privacy and just look after those in need. World is an unfair place computer will add to that unfairness.
Oh! I forgot more support for Grandparents looking after children for their families.
More cafes and little community centres near playgrounds. Fitness playgrounds for adults. Community fun spots.

Opinion polls tell us that women are more concerned about the impact of the recession than men, is that your view?
I think that women get a bit more concerned about what could happen, but to generalise is dangoerous.

Is the recession affecting your family life and if so how?
Apart from increased costs on everyhting I ahd to return to work a little earlier than I would ahve liked from my mat leave. I ahve now been told this week that I am being considered for redundancy, which is almost certainly now going to happen. As I work for a Bank I was expecting to get less money this year, certainy no profit share and a min pay increase if any. I have tbh and say that I am fed up of being slagged off everywhere i look just because i dare to work for a bank, believe it or not this is not all my fault and I certainly do not get £000000's in bonuses for doing nothing.

Are you getting the advice and information you need if you ask for help?
Can't answer this question today but may come back to it as I ahve to start looking for help now.

What do you want to see government doing to help with that?
As they know many people are being made redundant why haven't they start doing something to help those people ie Some sort of support function/helpline/website about what they can do how they can be helped. Employesrs could make staff aware of it when they tell them they no longer have a job.

What do you think about bonuses?
Bonus should be performance related to the individual. Every cog in a business needs to work not just the top ones.

How can we help women who want to start their own businesses?
Give us some help and advice, not just the how but what sort of businesses too.

She prpbaly has a better idea of British society than any of us Expat.

I can't see how advising people on which business to start will 'help' anyone - part of coming up with a business plan is having your own idea, that is taylored to you, your strengths and weaknesses.

My greatest concern is what impact the recession will have on our children. As we all have less money to spend on heating, food, etc - how will they suffer? I would like to see an increase in child benefit and also cold weather payments to families with children under 5, who often need to be home for large parts of the day.

It also distresses me how appalling our maternity benefits are in comparison to the rest of teh developed world. I know many women who just cannot afford to stay home for the first 6 months of their children's lives, let alone the first year - a period which, imho, is vital for the child's development. In times of recession when women are fearful of their jobs, and their partners' jobs, this must be the case in more an more homes. I woul like to see maternity an early years funding increased.

frazzledfairy ..what are you talking about re maternity pay? UK rates are not much lower than the rest of the western world at all, and in fact, given its duration is quite long, are probably above average and definitely have contributed to women's employment rates in prestige jobs stalling. also the comments re tax credits are bizarre. they may be overcomlicated, but I regard their very existance as one of Labour's greatest acheivements. Boffinmum, you are obviously not on a low income if increased tax allowances would have the same effect. they are an enormous help to people on low incomes.

But more family allowance would be nice, and I would like to see a more gradual tapering of tax credits for people on medium incomes. It would also help us if you could use the current year's income for directors and the self employed. our income will decrease this year, but we won't see the benefit in tax credits until (hopefully) we're OK again.

finally, re the comments about NVQs...I'm an employer and I do rate them, but only when they relate speciffically to the job. many applicants don't seem to realise what is relevant and what isn't. what I don't rate are overly general technical degrees from the local university. I'd sooner employ someone with an english degree as a programmer than someone with a degree in "applied computing" as the latter will know very little about lots of completely disparate subjects, where the former will at least be able to proof read...

Who is concerned depends on personal situation - I am aware through charity communications that there are many people in the world in unimaginable poverty which most of us in this country would never have to experience - thanks to global warming and our general selfishness. My DH does not think like this and is anxious about rising costs (gas payment up to £94 per month, just after BGas had frightened him into fixing the price - now they have dropped the prices again presumably we are being charged more - but smallprint he didn't read said if you change supplier before 2011 they charge £75; food - we are health conscious and try to buy organic fruit and veg but may have to cut down on this). Like a lot of men (and women) anxiety makes him irritable and I'm sure lots of marriages are suffering emotionally even more than financially at this time - media doom-mongering really doesn't help here.

We were already doing all the frugal stuff you can read about in magazines - grow own fruit and veg, don't have a tumble drier or dishwasher, cook real food, cut down on car use. After all that I don't have any time to work but as a SAHM would like my DH to be able to claim my tax allowance - I would only be prepared to work during school hours and don't think it would be worth the hassle for the small amount I could earn - would rather just go without the little extras and not have to negotiate time off for sports days, illnesses etc. I sympathise with people who genuinely don't have the choice and really need to work but as has been said before forcing women to work instead of being parents and making those of us who don't choose this option feel inferior is just going to cause other problems.

Safety of cyclists/pedestrians needs greater priority everywhere if we are going to make major lifestyle changes in the way we travel.

I have read government website advice on staying warm and saving money - if I set my thermostat at the level they recommend and kept the heating on all day and night as they seem to say our gas bill would be double what it is already!