Families should be free to spend the money on support from relatives and friends as well as nurseries Top think-tank backs plan to free up childcare provision Britain’s millions of parents of small children want to take control of the state’s £4 billion a year childcare budget and decide for themselves how to spend the money, according to a major new survey commissioned by a leading Westminster think-tank. By an overwhelming majority – 61 per cent to 33 per cent – parents with young children said that they want the freedom to decide how to spend their ‘Family Credit’ state childcare assistance, for example on informal care from relatives or friends. Under the present rules, state subsidies for childcare are only available if the provider is on an officially approved list. But the survey by Public First for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found that most parents would prefer to place their small children with grandparents, say, or family friends – or use the funds to help with the cost of providing care themselves. The survey of over 2,500 adults and parents also found widespread support for parents spending more time with their children at home when they are under school age. But many were prevented from doing so because of lack of money. For instance, 78 per cent of parents with young children said they would like to spend more time with their child than they currently do, citing finances as the main obstacle to doing so. This was true of 80 per cent of mothers and 76 per cent of fathers. And a startling 81 per cent of parents with children aged 0-4 agreed with the idea of helping parents to stay home for longer, rather than prioritising bringing them back to work quickly. For more parents would like to stay at home for longer than are currently able. Some 49 per cent of parents of children aged 0-4 said that they would prefer for themselves or their partner to take care of them at home – only 19 per cent of parents currently do so. Under the present system thirty hours free childcare support for 3–4-year-olds cannot be claimed by stay-at-home parents to make up for loss of income. Instead they must work at least 16 hours per week and place their children with Ofsted-approved providers such as nurseries and schools. This is despite the fact that, according to the poll, 47 per cent of parents would reduce their working hours to spend more time with their children if they could afford it. Such is the level of parental discontent, when asked if raising young children has become harder over the last decade, 49 per cent agreed versus only 19 per cent against. With the UK having some of the highest childcare costs in the developed world, spending on average 22 per cent of family income on childcare – double the average for advanced Western economies – the CSJ argues reform is urgently needed in its new report Parents know best: giving families a choice in childcare. Cristina Odone, head of the CSJ’s family policy unit, said: “Parents are best placed to make judgements about where to place their children when they are very young. They should be free to decide whether to use an approved provider, such as a state nursery, or make use of the informal childcare service offered by relatives, friends and neighbours. “Grandparents or aunts and uncles are often able and willing to look after little ones when mum or dad are out at work but if they do so, little subsidy is given. Canada and France have a system of family credits that puts parents in the driving seat and the UK should scrap its labyrinth of rules and regulations and follow suit.” The Public First survey also found widespread support for a fully transferrable Married Couples Tax Allowance which could boost family budgets by up to £2,500 a year – of great help in face of the cost of living allowance. This would require the Government to allow a spouse not in work to transfer their full tax-free income allowance of £12,500 a year to their partner, reducing the tax bill by one fifth of that amount – £2,500. At present, only 10 per cent of the allowance can be switched. The CSJ comment in their report on the survey: “The UK is an international outlier in not recognising family in the tax system, taxing couples with children as though they are individuals, and not recognising economic dependents. “A married couple earning the average household salary pays around 14 per cent of their income in tax in the UK, compared to just 4 per cent in the USA and 1–2 per cent in Germany.” Miriam Cates, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge and author of the report’s foreword, said: “No family should lose out because of how they decide to balance childcare and work. Government policy should reflect what voters and families want, and now we have a clear idea of what that is.” |
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