I Despair of a Tory Party that Bribes Mothers to Get Others to Take Care of Their Children

MAIL ON SUNDAY: With truly eye-watering illiberalism, the Government is once again trying to hammer family life into a shape that millions of us would reject.

It is expected to announce today that it will introduce an on-line voucher system that will subsidise up to one-fifth of childcare costs.

By one of those remarkable coincidences that brings a smile to a minister’s face, the day this happy news was judiciously leaked also brought a report that more than two million women are their family’s main bread-winner, equivalent to one in three of those who work.

With the cost of childcare going up and up, some might therefore hail the announcement of the voucher as an inspiring example of how ministerial hearts beat as one with the interests of the nation.

Unfortunately, however, there are one or two reasons why such hosannas would be wildly inappropriate.

First, this subsidy will be available to those on incomes of up to £150,000 a year. That means that even households with two working parents bringing in a joint income of £300,000 could end up receiving this support.

This is odd indeed for a Government that, at a time of supposed austerity, never stops telling us the better-off must bear a disproportionate share of the national pain.

Punished

The real downside of this childcare voucher, however, is that it is a subsidy for working mothers alone.

More than one million households in which mothers choose to remain at home to care for their children will get nothing. Far worse, this is part of a pattern in which such households are being punished financially. Read on and comment » | Melanie Phillips | Sunday, August 04, 2013

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Another Insult to Stay-home Mothers: Osborne Plans to Give Childcare Vouchers to Working Couples on Up to £300,000

MAIL ON SUNDAY: Online voucher system expected to benefit about 2.5m households / Even two parents who earn £150,000 a year each will get payments / But plan has been criticised as an 'insult' to stay-at-home mothers

Plans to give childcare vouchers to families with two working parents were branded ‘deeply insulting’ to stay-at-home mothers last night.

George Osborne will today unveil a scheme to hand up to £1,200 of taxpayer-funded childcare per child to families where both parents have a job, in a bid to encourage women back into the workplace.

But the Chancellor was accused of ‘stigmatising’ mothers who stay at home to care for their children, and of ‘discriminating against’ traditional families. One critic said it was a ‘further example of how out of touch he is’.

Under the plans, the scheme will be available to double-income households where neither parent earns more than £150,000 – meaning families with incomes of up to £300,000 could still benefit.

This is in sharp contrast to the cuts to child benefit, which have hit the incomes of families where just one parent earns more than £50,000.

Campaigners say the double standard shows the Government does not value the parenting role of stay-at-home mums, and today’s plans are another insult to women who choose to leave work to raise their children. » | Tim Shipman | Sunday, August 04, 2013