Government's "new" great childcare plan....

[duende]

I know there was a thread about it here a few weeks ago, but now a bit more detail is available:

parents to get 20% of childcare cost back

Now, I can't help but see it as a bit of a con. First of all, annoyed by how they sell it - our childcare bill is closer to 10-12k, so £1200 per year is NOT 20%.
Also, at the moment, both me and DP get the full amount available in childcare vouchers, which they will abolish. I get £243 per month, DP gets £220, and I am a higher tax payer.
Surely we will not be better off with this great new deal they have come up with?

Also, this will only be available to families where both parents work, current childcare voucher scheme is not restricted this way.

Am I missing something here, or are they about to screw people over again whilst dressing it as a positive move??

I was planning on going to uni 2014 for 3 years. So under the proposal no childcare for over 5s, no childcare for my youngest 2 as dh would be the only one in work, well my dream of going back to uni and retraining would be just that, a dream.

The more I hear about this proposal the more unfair to hard working parents and parents trying to better themselves this scheme appears to be.

I think we need this Government out.

Big kid no they don't but they need their child benefit and help to stay at home.If society facilitates those who want to work it should do the reverse for those that want to be sahp which actually benefits some children.

Those with 2 salaries are already getting 2 tax breaks,keeping their CB,2 pensions and a career.They must certainly don't need a shed more cash if on 50k plus combined income.

It is utterly,utterly unfair.

It gets worse then, we currently use childcare vouchers for before and after school care for primary age DC and the new scheme is only for under 5s, so we will lose out on this as well

Just had a brief read of new proposals

Two things strike me:

1. What happens during maternity leave? Is that deemed as one partner not "working". It shouldn't be, but that concerns me

1. Whilst on mat leave, employers should continue to provide Childcare vouchers without any deduction to smp (ie at their own cost). . I'm an employment lawyer and this REALLY pisses off employers who see it as an additional cost if they haven't been able to encourage a woman to opt out of the scheme pre mat leave

I have a sneaking suspicion that the real beneficiaries of this are businesses and that's the true reason this has been brought in.

I am not going to rise to 'which actually benefits some children', Kazoo.

Radio 4 said this morning that firstly, a government poll reported 50% of SAHP wanted to go back to work, and secondly, having more people work is better for the economy with tax flowing etc.

Anyway, I hate this bloody govt too. I don't believe they'll be in power in 2015 so this may all be pointless. And I still haven't found out what is happening in Scotland!

Why does sahp need help with childcare?

Eldest child sent to daycare, made redundant during pregnancy with second child. Required to keep eldest in childcare to keep place, even though parent at home.

Just one example, there may be more

Kazoo, not every household with two salaries keeps its CB. And our biggest single expenditure in our two salary house is childcare, followed by tax bills. I agree with you that whatever is done should be fair and supportive, but of everyone who pays into the system.

that makes sense, Birds

Big kid you don't have to rise to anything.The facts are some kids benefit from being at home instead of in childcare which the gov chose to ignore.

Oh and I got it wrong it's families on up to £300k who will benefit from this.

So those of us struggling on one income of 50-60k lose CB but those families on £300k get given a shed load of cash,utterly laughable.

The Tories are total morons.

No Bluey but those on 100k do.

When you add in CB,tax breaks you're already getting you're already a shed load better off,now you're getting a shed load more whilst families on a lot less have had CB taken away.

For us preschool is a 3 mile walk, I pay extra to preschool so I don't need to pick up before primary school ends, otherwise I'd be walking about all day. Youngest dc are at home with me.

Another example of sahp using childcare.

Well that's me giving up my job then. As it is I will be going back to work after DC2 for a couple of hundred pounds, so this will leave me in negative income to work.

Looks like we are going to lose out massively.

In 2015 we will have 4 children over 5 but under 12 and will be therefore eligible for ZERO help with childcare costs (pre-school, after school club, school holidays anyone?).

We had been saving childcare vouchers for years so that this would be easier for us. I have no idea what will happen to all the money we have saved in the childcare vouchers? Surely we won't be LOSING it?

Anyone else in a similar boat?

Since this government has been here I feel we have lost continuously on every front...how much more can families take of this?

To those currently in voucher schemes the BBC. site says that they will continue to operate for existing recipients. But that's not much consolidation for those who in2015 will need to pay for pre and afterschool care.

BBC says that people who currently claim vouchers will be able to keep them if they want:

"Parents who already claim childcare vouchers through the old scheme will be able to continue to do so if they wish, but it will be closed to new claimants who will be moved to the new tax-free childcare scheme."

And it says that there will be a consultation, so should be an opportunity to feed in comments.

Oops! x-post Birdy :)

What tax breaks, Kazoo? No CB, minimal childcare vouchers, no other tax breaks in this house. Just large childcare and tax bills. FWIW I do think the way child benefit was removed was wrong, it should never have been based on anything other than total household income and the level of removal wasn't well thought out (but would have caught some people out wherever it was put). But I don't think it should be a universal benefit, it should be a needs one. Childcare costs though - my childcare arrangements keep a good flow of tax into govt coffers, same as everyone else, so we all should get a break for that, surely?

So, in summary so far this past 12 months the government's new childcare policies consist of

• reducing ratios so we will pay the same for less focused care;
• shafting the squeezed middle over child benefit
• removing the voucher scheme/introducing the under-5 rule and thereby making parents of over 5's worse off (and all of the other groups mentioned upthread).

I am amazed that parents aren't yet rioting tbh!

The ConDems policies really aren't helping families at all, none of their policies are thought through properly.

Oh yes I have just seen that. Whilst this helps us it certainly doesn't help other people with over 5s - cost of pre-school and after-school care can really mount up, even if you have 1 or 2 children and not 4 like us.

Where we live (not in London!) it is about 16 pounds per day per child.....and that's without the school holidays thrown in the mix!!

Someone should do a Freedom of Information request to find out how they came up with their "average" childcare cost, as this is clearly wrong?

Can someone help me with this. I think I must be missing something here. I saw the article from the guardian

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/19/working-parents-childcare

It claims it's a boost by giving us £1200 on childcare cost.

But isn't this less than childcare vouchers? You can only claim this new benefit if both parents are working. We are, and so we have two sets of childcare vouchers. It means we are getting £930x2 = £1860 from the goverment currently on childcare. So how can this be a boost?

Surely this is a boost to people with more than one child, and a cut to anyone with only one?

So less money, which is available to fewer parents?

This isn't help for working families, it's yet another cut!

yes, I think 1 child = worse off, >1 child = better off.

I'm writing to my MP about this, and will include my figures and an FOI request. I'm so

find out contact details for your MP here

What about those families where one parent is unable to work through disability/illness, if the childcare plan only applies to those with 2 working parents? Many people in this situation use the childcare vouchers the earning parent gets as the disabled parent is unable to look after the dcs all the time during the day.

Another way of screwing over the disabled then