Subscribe to FeedWhat is the Government planning?
What is the Government planning to do about Childcare Vouchers?
- After April 2011, there’ll be no tax breaks on new Childcare Voucher schemes which are set up, so they will once again become a cost to employers as they were in 1999
- After April 2011, no new employees will be able to join existing schemes and benefit from tax breaks
- After April 2015, all old schemes will lose the tax breaks for people who were members before April 2011 – which means that at that point, employers will stop offering existing schemes
The stark facts are that unless we can do something about it, Childcare Vouchers as we know them will be phased out from 2011.
What the media is saying:
The Daily Mail: ‘Mugging for the middle classes’: Brown’s free childcare for poor could cost better-off families £2,000 a year
Scotland on Sunday: Battle looms over bid to tax childcare vouchers
Get involved:
Sign the online Downing Street petition here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/keepvouchers/
Would you benefit from the new plans?
Click here to find out: http://www.vouchersblog.co.uk/childcare-vouchers-vs-gordon-browns-new-plan/
What a w****r, Luckily I now only have one child in full time care,which still allows us to benefit from the maximum tax break, however the government still takes a nice £12,000.00 per year from my wife and I, for working our tits off. Can sombody please tell me why I put in 60+hours a week so Fat Brown can take some more money from me and my honest hardworking family.
My husband and I chose to have a family, we chose to both work and not scrounge from the State. We both work in the Public Sector – so our combined 100 hours of work each week is serving the community. We pay our hard-earned taxes, and earn over the threshold for WFTC. We also pay back my husbands student loan, rent on the home we live in, our mortgage on the home we couldn’t sell because of the recession (lived in by tenant who claims benefits incl. income support and housing benefit – but hasn’t paid us a penny of rent in 10 months, that would be ermm… oh yes – EVER SINCE SHE MOVED IN!!) So we need every penny and pound we earn. We struggle to put food on the table for our children. I work weekends to keep our childcare costs as low as possible. The vouchers DO NOT cover our monthly childcare costs – 1 child in full-time childcare 3 days per week and 2 children before and after school 3 days per week.
I fail to see how the current Government is helping us? The housing laws; the benefits system; the tax credits – are all designed to help people who want maximum pay-out for as little effort as possible! We need a system which helps people who work hard and provide for their families – not one which penalises us. The local councils allow themselves to be manipulated by ingrates who ‘work’ the system – and they know this!
Withdrawal of the vouchers (sorry, “phasing out the tax breaks”) is just the Governments way of introducing yet another stealth tax on the working and middle (working)classes. It’s a disgrace that this country is billions of £££s in debt.
There is no chance labour will win the next election now. Not only has Gordon Brown increased taxation on the high earners, he is now hitting middle england in the back pocket as well. David Cameron may not be another leader like Margaret Thatcher in the making, but next to Gordon Brown, he is positively outstanding.
I have lost out in one budget after the next under Labour and frankly am looking forward with reserved optimism to a Conversative government this time next year.
I am an Occupational Therapist Clinical Specialist. I did a BSc honours degree and 15 years NHS post grad training/work to get to where I am. With a 2 yesr old and one on the way I work three days a week so has three days of childcare to pay for, when I go back to work with a baby and a toddler in childcare I will be making very little taking into account petrol etc. I’d actually be better off not working as we’d be getting much more working tax credit based on husband’s wage only. If they take away the childcare voucher schemes I’d make a loss to work. However once you give up the job, if you don’t practise within a couple of years you can’t get a job without an NHS trust taking you on and agreeing supervised practice for a period of time. What a waste of all that money and training I (and the majority of other NHS woman staff who will be in the same position) have received and who will be left to staff the NHS?
This scheme was started by a Labour government and is now being phased out by the same. Do you really think that a Conservative party which is now campaigning on making cuts to public expenditure (if elected) is going to remain committed to a scheme that reduces government revenue and was introduced by Labour ? Besides which, this scheme is of most benefit to those who pay at the higher income tax rates (and therefore reduces the amount they could be giving to the public purse). In these recessionary times and talk of balancing the books, is it right to continue this scheme ? Of course it will hurt me financially but I’d rather have money left in the public pot to pay teachers and nurses a decent wage than have their salaries frozen to keep me slightly better off.
A disgraceful piece of Tory propaganda by Busy Bees during the Tory party conference. This government has done more for working families with children than any Government in history. Remember the Tories opposed flexible working. Those people on here, particularly, those who work in the public sector who seem to want a Tory Government better be careful what they wish for. Tax evasion by the rich costs this country several times the cost of the entire benefits system so any anger should be aimed at the rich not those on benefits.
I work as a NHS community nurse, I was able to return to work with the aid of childcare vouchers after my second child. If the voucher system was not avaliable I would not have been able to afford the childcare I required.
I have no extended family to help out and depend heavily on childcare from a local nursery. I get to do the job that I enjoy, and was trained for while my children are well looked after in the nursery.
If I did not have the voucher system it would be hard for me to justify working as a nurse.
I have two gorgeous boys, both in Full Time nursery. I work full time and my husband serves his country in the Forces. Our combined income puts us over the threshold for WFTC and we really rely on our childcare vouchers to make our childcare a little bit more affordable. Our monthly childcare bill is around £1600 per month, more than my husbands monthly take home pay!! On top of this we have to pay a mortgage, household bills and eat!! I find it amazing that we don’t qualify for any help in WFTC given the size of our bill, but to take away childcare vouchers would just be the icing on the cake.
I think I should give up working for a living and start to scrounge off of the system. I’m pretty sure i’d be better off (and not constantly worn out). Obviously I wouldn’t do that, but it does make me wonder why on earth I have to work full time and run a part time business on top of full time work just so my family can afford the extra’s like days out, when I could just sit at home all day and most probably have the same amount of money left over at the end of the month for family treats.
I am in the same boat as most of the people commenting here. I have 2 boys below school age and I went back to work after each one was born. My husband works full time and I work 3 days a week (which is considered to be full time apparetly) If childcare vouchers (and child tax credits – if the torys get in) were phased out, I would be forced to give up work, my earnings would no longer cover childcare costs. We would then become a lower earning family and qualify for other benfits – what the???. The Voucher system is a god send, it means that I can work, pay for my boys to be looked after in a lovely nursery and we have a little left over to help with the bills. I would like to think that other people are given the same opportunities as me which allow them to continue to work and earn money for the country and economy as a whole.
This Phasing out may be there to help poorer people with childcare costs – I understand this, but it is also penailising those of us who just about make ends meet soley due to the current tax breaks.
Apart from the nurseries who charge money for the existing, allegedly free hours of childcare, claiming they offer a superior service over and above the free provision.
Good luck getting anything actually “free”.
Perhaps I should become an MP and reclaim on my expenses!
No-one seems to have noticed yet that talk of massive government debts and necessary public spending cuts are completely fabricated to create fear. Our national debt is at 40-odd percent of GDP. If we’re in such a mess then what about Japan at nearly 200% with plans to increase their public spending? The cuts are designed to preserve profits in the private sector by reducing taxes on big business, nothing more. Our leaders are liars, pathetic little greed-heads whose attitude towards common people (ie anyone without a peerage or worth less than a few million) stinks. If you think the tories would change this you’re an idiot. If you think the lib dems would change this you’re a fool. If you think the BNP, fascist. Who do we turn to? Maybe it’s time to bring the ghostbusters out of retirement, Egon Spengler for PM!
I am sure this is adversely going to affect the birth rates which are already low. Any new misnisterail decisions which would adversely affect the daily running of the family establishment (in a country where having own family is an expensive business) will have a huge impact on the birth rate for sure. Certainly this is not in the right direction.
I’m lucky – I’ve benefited from vouchers since the birth of my first boy nearly 5 years ago, and my second will be well into the school system by the time this is phased out. That doesn’t lessen my dismay at this however.
As I understood it, the aims of both the free nursery places (the state nursery system) and the childcare voucher schemes was twofold – to encourage people to go back to work and to reduce child poverty in terms of opportunity and education.
The government has clearly decided that getting people to go back to work after having children is no longer a priority. The free nursery places (although admirable) do NOTHING to enable those with children to return to work.
The system is such that the majority of establishments offering the scheme operate strictly to the 2 1/2 hours a day funded by government, leaving parents only 2 1/2 hours to drop children off, pick them up, travel to and from work as well as the work itself. I can’t imagine anyone could squeeze much more than an hours work on this timetable.
Extending this system to 2 year olds does nothing to impact this problem.
This leaves only two types of people able to benefit – those who do not work either by choice or by force. In our experience, the local free places are dominated by relatively well-off families where one parent is able to stay out of work on a full time basis. In fact we were only able to use state nursery on the days when my wife did not work (she is a community nurse working part time).
And all this is before you factor in that state nursery places do not operate in school holidays, etc.
This does not mean that child nursery places are a BAD idea – in fact they’re an excellent idea, but not at the expense of a scheme that allows many to work who otherwise wouldn’t. Without childcare vouchers, my wife could not have returned to work, meaning the tax she pays wouldn’t have gone into the coffers, and this FAR outweighs what we get back in benefits in terms of vouchers.
Surely there is a better middle ground to limit the perceived disproportional benefits accrued by ‘middle class’ families? Perhaps limit savings to lower rate tax rather than allowing higher rate breaks? Perhaps means-test the system? Perhaps only allow vouchers when both parents are working? Perhaps only allow voucher payment from a child’s first birthday? Perhaps means-test child benefit (which is a complete joke considering there is no upper earnings ceiling on it)?
Not saying any of these are the answer, but surely there are other/better options?
This isn’t about wanting to retain money for ‘nothing’ (which the vouchers are, and I’m eternally grateful for them), it’s about driving the right kind of behaviour in society, which the new plan seems to fundamentally fail to do.
A real shame.
Let’s be frank, what more can you expect from a Government who have deliberately gone out to screw people who work. We are treated as cash cows to subsidise those who can’t be arsed to work, subsidise anyone who cares to have a free ride and feels that the World owes them living !! It makes me puke. For years my wife and I have contributed far more that we have had, not begrudging those who need help but when it comes to having a small tax break the unelected Premier of our glorious country decides again, unilaterally, to F*** us over. I’m not a political beast, but admit I voted Labour for the past few elections but bet your boots, this is the last (Jack) straw. You ask yourself why are they doing it. Simply it strikes me not only is the country on the verge of being financial bankrupts, but also on the edge of it morally. Again it expect us poor saps to bale it out because of P**** poor leadership.
Well they can ram it as far as I’m concerned, both my wife and I have the necessary points to bugger of to OZ. Sure we understand that it is in reality a one way ticket but who would want a return !!
Quality of life is what it is all about and it ain’t something we will get here any time soon
If this is scrapped from April 2011, I imagine there’ll be a lot of people like me who will be returning to work early from maternity leave to get on the voucher scheme in March before the tax benefits are removed.
Even as a higher rate tax payer, things will be extremely tight for us as the costs of simply getting to work and child care is so expensive.
My baby is due 2010 and the extra money per month over the following 5 years will be simply too great to lose.
Of course public expenditure needs to be cut in the current circumstances, but why not cut childcare vouchers just for higher rate tax payers, thereby still helping the worse-off families? Ah! …and what about abolishing tax avoidance schemes? There is at least one whereby, if you use particular nurseries and can get your employer to agree to pay your childcare fees via payroll, you get all that money you pay towards fees tax free (not just the £243/month)? Much more ‘tax efficient’, but only for the lucky few, obviously…
I am totally disgusted. I returned to work full time after my first baby was 6 months old (he is now 3). I pay taxes and did actually want to return to work. We are now trying for baby no 2. What incentive is there now to return to work after baby no 2? I am so disgusted. Labour are out the door completely now. I could have sat on my backside after having children claiming benefits, but no, I wanted to earn my keep and pay my way. My childcare bill is the size of a small mortgage and before interest rates came down we were on the verge of loosing our house, we just couldn’t keep up with all the bills. If tax relief is taken away there will be point at all in me having a job. I agree so much with all of the comments on this website. I have signed the petition and am making as many people aware of it as necessary. Make sure you pass it round, even get onto your local MP. I am not going to let this drop. It is thanks to hard working parents that this country hasn’t gone down the pan completely, what thanks do we get?
DISGUSTING! We are in the throws of a recession, trying to all get our finances more sorted and this stupid man who doesn’t need the financial help decides to take away what is essentially helping many people to stay afloat. When Blair came in he did lots of good things – increase maternity leave, introduction of paid paternity leave, increase SMP, more paid early education places, introduction of this scheme. He’s gone and Brown is now more settled and seems to think it’s a good idea to undo that good work. TWAT! I am a childminder, I know that a lot of women do NOT want to work but they have to in order for their families to have any sort of life, there are also families who want to work but have children too – either way they need help. We still have one of the lowest levels of maternity/paternity leave and pay in Europe (in fact the world) so to then kick everyone in the teeth by withdrawing what is often the only lifeline is stupid. No doubt the next big hit will be on Child Tax Credits which are also stupid. They aren’t “actual means” tested, only based on an income. So what, my husband earns well but our outgoings nearly wipe us out due to the ridiculous cost of living these days – does Brown care, no – he has his free house! AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH when will politicians learn!
Gordon Brown has now decided to commit political suicide. The consequences of this policy are potentially huge. The dangers include, but not limited to, are (i)Many people may have to leave their jobs because they can’t afford the childcare (ii) Unemployment will rise (iii) Benefit payout will rise (iv) Valuable skills are lost from Britains workforce (v)Lost revenue of income tax from the vacated jobs (vi) Childcare providers may have to close and/or make staff unemployed.
What the government should be doing is focusing on reducing cost and not increasing value i.e. Stop payouts to scroungers, be tough on immigration, stop payouts to idiots running the banking sector, cut back on unneccesary public sector spending such as £2,000 desks in Job Centres, £1,000 artwork etc etc.
It’s so frustrating that the people who there to make the country better are the ones that are full of Bullsh#t
Please learn about the whole scheme before commenting. To say scrapping this scheme just hits hard working families is nonsense. If you are struggling surely you do not want to subsidise the very rich and large corporations – yet that is exactly what you are doing. More of the money that would have been in the public treasury for all of us is going to the higher earners and very large corps (like the banks who we have already paid for)than it does to you, or the people who need it most. People on minimum wage cannot even join the scheme!!!!
Campaign for help if you truely need it but not to keep this disgustingly unjust scheme going. For me scrapping it is the first good thing this Labour government has done, even though they brought it in.
I give up, I got married, they stopped the married mans tax allowance, I bought a house, they stopped the MIRAS (remember that?!), my now husband left his 1 st wife the same time they started the CSA. He did claim tax relief for this but then they brought in the WFTC and CTC so that was stopped, and to top it off they overpaid us for 6 months then stopped giving us any and we have had nothing since 2003!!!! Now i have just joined this voucher scheme to save a bit of my, yes my, hard earned cash and now they are stopping this. I have paid childcare for 9 years (6 of those for 2 children) and we have worked all our working lives, I am just sick of it, this country is just not benefiting anyone other than those on benefits, and I dont mean the ones who have fell on hard times during the recession, I mean the persistent reapers, thanks Gordon and previous leaders of both the Labour and Tory party, for nothing!!
I think all that is being planned is that tax breaks for childcare will be means tested in future rather than available for all, which is understandable in the current ifnancial climate but tough luck for me !!
I agree with most of the comments left here. Basically Gordon is only interested in helping people who do nothing to help themselves. After paying for child care and other bills I am probably worse off than the wasters that stay at home all day!!
I’m a childcarer. I accept vouchers from 6 parents. I know that for most of these families the scheme makes a huge difference to their finances. At least two of the parents wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for the vouchers. It just wouldn’t be worth it. At the moment, after paying childcare they are left with very little money, but if they didn’t get this tax break it would end up costing them to go to work by the time you take travel costs etc. into account. Other parents would work shorter hours.
So although I don’t use the vouchers for my daughter; I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home, I do benefit from them. If the scheme was stopped, not only would many parents stop working, but jobs would be lost in the childcare sector, possibly resulting in a drop in standards. Which would be a shame after all the hard work put into place since the EYFS came into being.
Childcare for 2 year olds Gordon? And what exactly are we supposed to do for the first two years??
Or am I right in thinking that *you’ll* be taking two years off next time you have a baby? Ah no, that’s what the wife’s for right?
Doesn’t Labour want the women’s vote? They might do well to remember that we constitute 51% of the British population.
And we’re just about tired of Labour legislating against us.
Another blow for hard working parents. I’m seriusly considering giving up and going on benefits, I’ll certainly be better off!
I am very passionate about the issue of the cancellation of childcare vouchers as it seems to be the only relief my family gets for being involved with full time employment. I believe that better targetting is possible without punishing those who really need the relief that childcare vouchers provide.
The ‘heads’ of the children whose parents will be adversely affected will not forgive this government if it goes ahead with the planned cancellation in its current format!