Give a disabled child a better life

By Elizabeth Gardiner, Parliamentary and Policy officer at Working Families

Elizabeth Gardiner

Any parent will tell you balancing work and care is a challenge. But this month, Working Families is focusing especially on parents with disabled children – and a new appeal for support.

For the past 17 years my colleagues and I have run a “Waving Not Drowning” network for parents of disabled children who work or wish to work. So we know the particular barriers to paid work that these parents face.

Affording childcare is high on the political agenda, but finding and paying for specialist childcare to suit a disabled child’s needs is difficult. Parents need jobs that fit with their caring responsibilities, but also very understanding employers. Too often hospital and other appointments are inflexible and can’t be easily rearranged. Flexible hours can be vital.

I knew caring for a disabled child was hard. But I was shocked by the results of our recent survey of 1,000 parents of disabled children. It exposed a worrying pattern of unemployment and under-employment.

Greater risk

Almost three in 10 parents surveyed were not in paid work - most because they had given up to care for their disabled child - and over half of those not in work had given up at least six years ago. Over 90 per cent of these parents say they would like to do paid work - but it is very hard to get back in to work after so long out.

For those in work, many were working well below their abilities. Almost two thirds of these parents had refrained from seeking promotion, declined promotion or accepted demotion to balance caring with paid work. This is a shocking waste of talent and the knock-on effects on family life are profound.

Unemployment and under-employment mean families with disabled children are at greater risk of experiencing poverty, poor housing, social isolation and family break up. Children’s life chances are affected. So my appeal is to “give a disabled child a better life” by supporting Working Families’ work to keep parents of disabled children in work and out of poverty.

Our free legal helpline offers expert advice on employment rights and helps parents negotiate the flexible hours they need. We provide outreach support to parents’ groups. We produce tailored resources on work and family finance for families with disabled children.

And we’re launching a new campaign - “Working On” - to highlight to government, employers and support services what needs to change.

• I want to see the introduction of “adjustment leave” - short-term flexibility to help parents remain in work through a crisis period, such as during a diagnosis of disability.

• I want the extra costs of childcare for disabled children recognised in the benefits system. I want more employers to offer - and advertise - jobs flexibly to open up the market for parents who can’t work full time.

• I want schools, health and other service providers to plan services to suit working parents.

• And I want to see attitudes change - parents of disabled children CAN work, want to work, and their children’s life chances may depend on it.

To help, visit Working Families here bit.ly/13mfdxg.

Thank you for reading.

Childcare voucher changes – how will they affect you?‪‪

By Computershare Voucher Services managing director Julian Foster.

‪On 19th March 2013, the Government announced an overhaul of the childcare voucher scheme.‪

The new scheme will not come into force until autumn 2015 at the earliest, but it does represent a big change in the way that Government supports childcare in the UK.‪

You will want to know what has been announced. You will want to know how it affects you, and how our service will change.‪

The first thing to say is many of the details have yet to be decided and we are engaging with Government in a consultation which will take up much of the year.‪

What we know will happen is that childcare vouchers will go from being a salary sacrifice benefit offered by employers to their staff (as it is now) to a benefit offered by Government to working parents.‪

It will be open to a single working parent earning up to £150,000 per year, or two working parents with combined earnings of up to £300,000. For the first time the self-employed will also be included.

That all means the number of families able to use childcare vouchers will go from the 500,000 registered to use them at the moment to something in the region of 2.5million in 2015.  

We welcome that, and we welcome the £750m in new money for childcare that this deal represents.

Will you be better off under the new scheme?‪‪

That’s the key question. Not everyone will be.‪

We’re busy creating an online calculator to help you discover exactly whether you’ll be better or worse off. Information is already out there, but it does mean doing a bit of maths – not everyone’s favourite pastime! You can find Government advice here.‪

We’ll upload our calculator as soon as we have it. Keep checking here, follow our Twitter account and like our Facebook page for updates.‪

However, in general terms, a single parent paying tax at basic rate and spending over £4,665 on childcare each year will be better off in the new scheme.

For a family with two or more children, where both parents are working (and paying tax at basic rate), if they spend over £9,330 on childcare each year, they will be better off in the new scheme.

The existing scheme generally works out better for two parent families with only one child or parents spending less than the above examples.

The good news is that if you are better off under the system which exists now you will not be forced to change to the new system. That really is worth remembering.‪

Currently, only parents with children aged under five are eligible for vouchers in the first year of the new scheme, but that is expected to increase to all with children under 12 over time.

The existing scheme covers all children aged 15 or under.‪

What will happen to my childcare vouchers?‪‪

If you don’t want anything to happen to your childcare vouchers – nothing.

If you want to adopt the new system, it won’t be in place until autumn 2015 at the earliest. So there is no need to do anything, or make any decisions, for quite some time.‪

In the meantime you can continue to receive and use your childcare vouchers in exactly the same way as you do now.

We will also be designing a process for easily moving across to the new system, if that’s what you want when the time comes.‪

So, for now, it’s business as usual!

We’ll keep you updated with the results of the consultation.‪

Let's help Working Families

Let’s get beyond the PR and really help Working Families, says Computershare Voucher Service (CVS) managing director Julian Foster.

Julian Foster

IT'S CERTAINLY interesting working in an industry which has become a hot political topic. The relentless rise in childcare costs is literally emptying the bank balances of hard-working parents across the UK and – believe me – everyone in government knows it.

How do I know what they think? Because I’ve just given my second speech in the halls of power at Westminster in just over two months. In January I was at Downing Street addressing Education and Childcare minister Elizabeth Truss on behalf of the Childcare Voucher Providers Association.

Additionally, on March 4th I was proud to host a CVS-sponsored evening reception at The House of Lords for charity Working Families.

For those who don’t know, Working Families offer real-world advice to working parents and carers who need a better balance between home and work life.

Their free Helpline offers advice on employment rights in relation to maternity and paternity leave, rights to time off in an emergency and help in negotiating flexible hours. 

Working Families (website here) is a fantastic charity and CVS is proud to support it.

But the fact that it exists at all shows there is a need to support Britain’s vast pool of men and women who desperately want to be as dedicated employees as they are devoted parents.

It’s time to move beyond PR and focus on giving more support to parents as quickly as possible.

Keep up the support

The support offered by the UK’s childcare voucher scheme has not kept up with either the cost of living – or indeed the way we’re living.

By cost of living, I mean childcare fees have risen by 5% each year for the last five years.

If the tax exemption offered to basic rate taxpayers by vouchers is to keep pace, the limit should rise from its current £55 per week to £75.

And the system should recognise and support the way we’re living now. A record number are self-employed. But the self-employed cannot currently use childcare vouchers.

This particularly affects women, who make up 46% of the economically active population but make up only 26% of those who are self-employed.

By extending the scheme to the self-employed, the Government would be demonstrating a real commitment to those new mothers and fathers whose entrepreneurial spirit is core to the regeneration of the British economy.

With the Budget expected this month I would say to the Government that support can’t come soon enough.

Family law is changing. Share your views!

The Government would like to overhaul the law in several areas relating to children and families - and they want to hear your views.

The Children and Families Bill could make major changes to the laws affecting you and your family. For example: it will look at the rules governing childcare provision, your rights to request more flexible working and issues around special educational needs.  

A special web forum has been launched where you can share your thoughts on all areas of the Bill - this is your chance to comment on those issues that may affect you!

But be quick – you only have until 26 February to leave your comments. After then, a summary of all the responses will go to a panel of MPs whose job it is to make changes to the Bill before it becomes law.

To read more about the Bill, see what others have said and leave comments of your own visit:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/bills-and-legislation/public-reading/children-and-families-bill/

Government announces more help for working parents

In its Mid-Term Review, the Government announced that it will offer greater support for working parents, to help them cope with spiralling childcare costs.

No details were given in the announcement as to what form this increased support will take, but further information is expected to be announced shortly.

In reaction to the news, the Childcare Vouchers Provider Association (CVPA) has issued a statement outlining a number of ways that an expansion of the childcare vouchers scheme could help support this aim.

 “Solving childcare affordability doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel.  With a few simple changes to the childcare voucher scheme, Government could give working parents the support they need.

“We have been working with Government to increase childcare support.  Childcare vouchers can be expanded to include self-employed parents, those on the national minimum wage and through introducing a right to request.”

As the UK’s largest dedicated childcare voucher provider, we work with thousands of working parents, carers and employers based across the UK.

We fully support the view of the CVPA that the existing childcare voucher scheme should be extended and we have been engaging on this with the Government for some time. The voucher scheme is efficient and cost-effective for parents, employers and the Government.

Childcare vouchers are currently one of the key ways parents can reduce the costs of childcare. Over 500,000 working parents, 80% of which are basic rate tax-payers, rely on the scheme to pay for their registered childcare.

In a recent industry survey, one in five parents revealed that they, or their partner, would have to give up work if childcare vouchers were withdrawn - a massive 100,000 people!

In addition, a further 38% said that they or their partner would have to reduce their hours if that happened.

That is why we’ve communicated to the Government our ideas on how the existing scheme can be extended and we hope that the Government will give full consideration to these recommendations and seek to build on the existing scheme. 

Thank you!

We’ve received a really nice ‘thank you’ card from the 0-5 winner of our recent Design a Christmas Card competition.

Thank you very much to Elissa for making this and sending it into us! We think it’s fab and we all want to be the one lucky enough to have it on our desks!

If you would like to take a look at some of the entries we received for the competition, and the three winning designs, visit our Facebook page.