Government doesn't want the mother to stay at home.

robindunne1

I thik I recall the tories having this as part of their election manifesto in 1997 - although I'm not sure as I didn't pay much attention as I wasn't old enough to vote.

Tax credits go somewhere to resolving the problem but nowhere near as much. I earn just above the barrier for getting the flatlined £10.54 per week, but a family earning twice as much will get the same????? I'm sure this is just a ploy by the government to say 90% of families will benefit from tax credits even though the majority of those only receive a token payment to keep the % up.

Reductions for council tax are also a bug bare of mine. Even people in prison get the reduction, but stay at home mums do not. What a joke!!!!!

I would encourage anyone who holds my point of view to write a letter to their MP. Feel free to copy my letter in OP if you wish.

Prudent

The same disadvantage also applies to single parents who are working. A couple earning £20,000 a year between them will get more tax allowances than a single parent earning £20,000. Whilst I accept there is the cost involved in keeping two adults, I personally have single parenthood to be more costly in relation to the child as the childcare costs have been higher. I also find I am more tired and therefore more likely to buy food that is quick to prepare, but more expensive.(Although the old style board is helping me get back on track!).
Some single parents get maintainence which balances out these additional costs. I am finally getting to this point myself thankfully. It took a battle of two and half years with the CSA and a lot of stress to get there. Many exhausted and frustrated single parents give up before this point and manage entirley on their own income.

I think a system of child tax credit needs to be put in place which takes into account how much tax allowances you have already received as a family unit.


If I had the choice to stay at home with a young child I would do so. I work as a teacher in the early primary stages. I think children with stay at home mums are often at an advantge. I notice this especially when the children are sick. Many working parents send sick children into the classroom as it is their 'childcare'. It makes me sad to see children who should be tucked up in bed in lively classrooms and noisy playgrounds.

kidtechnical

Good for you! I'm already in contact with my MP because after being a SAHM for 4 yrs I've now decided to go back to full time education but will get no help with childcare costs. Me & OH are far from being rich, OH has been setting up his own business for the last 4 yrs so it's been a struggle to say the least & TBH I just can't afford to go back to work, I figured I'd only get 100-200 per month for my efforts after I'd paid childcare, sorry, but I'm not leaving my kids with someone else for the sake of a couple of extra hundred pounds in the kitty & of course we'd have lost out on tax credits, so in really I'm sure 100-200 is a bit optimistic.

My gripe at the mo is that we'll have to fork out £200 per week in childcare costs (this is cheap, average local cost was £300) & even though OH is working 40+ hrs a week & paying tax etc we wont get any help from the childcare element of tax credit, because we both have to work 16+ hrs. To quote the tax credit person I spoke to "we're not going to pay someone else to look after your kids if you can do it" Sorry? I'm learning, getting an education, not sitting in the pub! Its sticking in my throat. We are a couple, bringing our kids up together. We should split everything 50/50 including the childcare, in which case I think OH half of the weekly childcare (£100) should be eligable for the childcare element of tax credits, so he should be able to claim upto 70% or upto £70, but it doesn't work like that and I'm not resting till I know why - at the end of the day I'll be filling a valuable role in the NHS & earning more as a result. The saving grace is that I'll be training as a midwife & will at least be eligable for a bursary that should cover most of the childcare cost, but the bursary is designed to replace loss of earnings & is not just for people with kids, so a married midwifery student in Scotland will get just £200 (approx) per yr less than me (you get bursary+dependants allowance for husband or 1st child + further amount for subsequent children).

Don't get me wrong, the tax credits have been an incredible help for us, but I think the system is seriously flawed.

Good luck

kidtechnical

Spendless wrote:

If you haven't claimed it do so now as it can only be backdated for 3 months.

Does anyone know why they can't backdate them? When I had my 1st I didn't apply for tax credits, someone told me (HV I'm sure) that OH (who wasn't self employed at the time) was earning too much, so stupidly I didn't look into it (baby had colic, screamed from 12 noon to 6pm, I had better things to do, like not lose my mind!!). By the time I called them I'd lost a heck of a lot of money (esp as you get more in the 1st yr). They couldn't explain why they didn't backdate, just said they couldn't.

Spendless

Kidtechnical - I don't know the reason why they won't backdate beyond 3 months. A midwife told my friend she wasn't eligible for Maternity Allowance. She was I told her she was, I was also eligible and got the money. Friend beleived midwife and lost out.

Re-your childcare costs- The term after your childs 3rd birthday you are eligible for 12.5 hours funding that you can take at a private nursery/pre-school, (accredited) childminder.

My hubbys employer offers childcare vouchers via a salary sacrifice scheme. He gives up so much of his wages and gets same amount in a childcare voucher. The money he sacrifices is exempt from tax and NI. You can sacrifice upto £50 a week.I don't know if you can do or how to go about it if self-employed but might be worth you finding out.

You can use the salary sacrificed childcare vouchers in conjunction with the funding at 3. Neither are means tested.

kidtechnical

Spendless wrote:

Re-your childcare costs- The term after your childs 3rd birthday you are eligible for 12.5 hours funding that you can take at a private nursery/pre-school, (accredited) childminder.

My 4 yr old currently attends nursery & his little brother starts next April, however, childminders continue to charge full price for the time the child is in nursery (if they care for them before & after as mines will) on the basis that they can't fill that 2.5 hr vacancy per day, so I don't really benefit from the free childcare, though kids definately benefit from the educational element of it.

I will ask my OH to look into the voucher thing (or ask his bus partner who deals with that stuff to look into it), he has an employee who has a child, so it'd be a good family friendly policy to adopt. Thanks for the advice.

Rajeev

I think the starting post is bringing out a valid point, and families should be allowed to use the lower tax brackets/breaks of all family members (including children). So depending upon the number of individuals in a family, you will get 4500 x n times tax free allowance and next 20,000 x n times at 20% tax. I think we should all sign a petition and send to various MPs.

princessmoneysaver

Totally agree with everything that has been said & I would love to work (My husband already does) but I simply can't afford to. I've tried getting a job during school hours with no luck. Cheapest childcare options during school holidays is around £250 a week which I can't earn, husband's wage is only around £180 a week in a full time job BEFORE TAX! I'm helping out at school & they are paying for me to do various courses which hopefully will in time help me to find paid employment in a school, which will suit me as when school's shut for the holidays then I won't be at work anyway.

Yvonne

mummytofour

fairylights wrote:

:T :T :T

I agree! I work from home selling Usborne books as a way of making a few pennies so I DON'T have to leave my children with someone else. Our annual combined income isn't even 15K, and tax credits really do help us, so I'm glad they're there. BUT I feel so much like I'm under pressure to be able to spend to keep my kids involved with other little ones, and as most other stay at home mums have very well paid husbands keeping them there, it's a bit odd being stony broke but not working. I wouldn't swop it - we've never had huge amounts of cash coming in so we don't feel like we've missed out by me staying home with our kids. And let's face it, we wouldn't have had a second child if I'd had to pay for childcare on my old salary. It's fine for the high flyers, but those of us who don't have well paid jobs don't generally get much of a choice because of the government's need for us all to be able to work.

Not trying to start an argument , but I reckon if you wanted to you can probably pinpoint the downturn in British antisocial behaviour to about the same time we were all told that we should ALL go out to work and leave our children with someone else. I'm not taking that risk with my children - I'll only have myself to blame when they grow up to be monsters :rotfl:

Stoney broke here too even with the tax credits we get, which are a fair amount. Im SAHM to four, pretty sick of making ends meet BUT i want to be here for my babies.

To be honest I dont think I could afford to work with the cost of child care.

Dh works long hrs in london, it costs us in the region of 4k for him to get to work each yr, shame the tax credits dont take that into account :mad:


I dont think that mums are valued enough in this country.

Spendless

YvonneCrossland wrote:

Totally agree with everything that has been said & I would love to work (My husband already does) but I simply can't afford to. I've tried getting a job during school hours with no luck. Cheapest childcare options during school holidays is around £250 a week which I can't earn, husband's wage is only around £180 a week in a full time job BEFORE TAX! I'm helping out at school & they are paying for me to do various courses which hopefully will in time help me to find paid employment in a school, which will suit me as when school's shut for the holidays then I won't be at work anyway.

Yvonne

Yvonne- I would have thought that you could get help with childcare costs via the tax credit system due to your income if you wished to return to work. You both have to work at least 16 hours to get help. You can check out figures at https://www.entitledto.com