Stay at home parents are non persons.

Carmina_Piranha_3

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle wrote:

I dont believe that you should be paid to stay at home but i dont think that is what the OP is implying at all. I think it is about adjusting tax accordingly for your circumstances. And that being a MOTHER or FATHER who stays at home for the kiddies should be recognised as an important role! Where would we be without having that from our parents?

does the recognition that it's an important role have to be a financial one though? don't get me wrong i would love for my husband to have my taxable allowance, and also possible for tax credits to take into account that some people are repaying their student loans. but i do think that the current system allows parents to choose work or staying at home up to a point. that point is the income level at which tax credits stop being paid except for the family element of £10.50 a week - so that's more than 25k a year.

anyone earning less than 25k a year (which i think is the average wage?) is given the choice of whether to stay at home or to work by being given money if their income is low, and given help with childcare if they want to work but the cost of childcare would not make it worthwhile. this seems to me to be valuing the role of staying at home because if the breadwinner isn't bringing home 25k then what they do bring home is topped up.

the choice is there for everyone. work and get help with childcare and some extra tax credit, or stay at home and get some extra tax credit. it's only when one parent earns more than 25k that the other parent isn't rewarded for staying at home.

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Yeah i do agree but they were two seperate points. The one about adjusting tax was what i thought the OP was getting at. I personally have no complaints on the money side as this is a choice we made and we knew the financial consequences. TBH i'm greatful that i live in the uk because if we were elsewhere we prob wouldnt have any help.

We wouldn't really be much better off if i went back to work because i did not even nearly earn £25k. And i would have prob made the same decision even if i did earn a great deal more. My OH is the only earner now and he only earns around £20k and has to supprt the three of us. Yes we get a bit of CTC but nothing else apart from Child Ben which pays for nappies, Milk,baby food ect and then when it cumulates i put the lump sum in her Child trust fund, so i dont even take that into consideration as it is for her. we do not live in a council or housing assosiation property so our rent and CT is still extremely high.

Im personally just fed up of the stigma on us stay at home mums when i think we are actually doing one of THE MOST IMPORTANT jobs there could be. I think that is the other piont the OP was trying to make. We chose to have a baby and we knew it could be hard financially so im not trying to say i want your money. Its just annoying that i worked since 16 and paid lots and lots of tax bacause i have always done countless amount of hours. I hate it when people say they are paying for those who stay at home when the majority have spent our pre-mother lives being employed. I am no way being lazy by staying at home but fullfilling an important role in my childs life.

This isnt directed to you Carmina, now im just having my own whinge.

Sorry this has gone a bit wild - my post before was really stating that we had got on the wrong subject but know im guilty of it too with this post.

Carmina_Piranha_3

i can whinge about the tax credits system too, but deep down i think it's a good idea. but it seems daft that the girl down the road gets more in tax credits to pay for full time childcare for her 2 children than it would cost for her to stay at home on income support - they REALLY want mums to be in work don't they

newcook

vippymini wrote:

What i find silly is the goverment wont pay u to stay at home but if you become a registered childminder they will pay you to look after someone elses kids...

so what you do is you and a neigbour get registered and then pay each other to look after each otheres kids .......this is the crazy world we live in..

what with this the goverment wants mums to go to work and in the next breath want mums to stay at home and have kids as there going to be a shortage of the futer generation that pay our prnsions.... we cant win!

:rotfl: :rotfl: this really tickled me!!!! mainly because it is so true!! I shouldn't really comment as I haven't got kids but it is really interesting to see what will happen moneywise when me and OH have a baby and the more info I can read now will save the big shock when we have a family.

I personally think that the tax relief from the SAHP should be passed to worker.
can you not register as a childminder and say you are minding your OH's baby?!?!?!?