Government criticised for excluding stay-at-home mothers from ...

The government?s decision to restrict new childcare support payments planned for 2015 to working parents has drawn criticism from stay-at-home mothers.

Payments equalling 20 per cent of childcare costs up to a maximum of ?6,000 will be available via vouchers to families in which both parents or with a working single parent from autumn 2015. Only families with a joint income of ?300,000 or less will be eligible.

Asked why stay-at-home parents would not be eligible for the payments, a spokesman for the Prime Minister told The Telegraph that the scheme was ?very important as part of supporting those who want to work hard and to get on?.

He added:

?The announcement is very specifically focusing on helping those who want to work hard and face the very high child care costs.?

But Marie Peacock of campaign group Mothers At Home Matter insisted

?[Mothers who stay at home] are working hard and they want to get on. Hard-working families are not just families with two earners. David Cameron is alienating mothers across Britain. We have been inundated with calls from stay-at-home mums who are puzzled and confused by what Mr Cameron is saying.?

A policy document, later removed from the Treasury?s website but preserved on the PoliticsHome blog, claimed working parents needed more support from the government.

?We need to focus our resources. Working families who are struggling with their childcare costs or where parents want to go to work but can?t afford to are in greater need of state support for childcare than families where on parent chooses to say home and look after their children full time.?

Some Tory MPs? were also critical. Esher MP Dominic Raab said:

?It is welcome that the Government is supporting hard-working families, but it should not end up penalising their individual choice about how to strike the right balance between bread-winning and child-caring.?

Photo by?Pat Dalton??via Flickr under a Creative Commons licence

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Posted on 20 March 2013

Tags: 2015, childcare, childcare costs, Conservative Party, Dominic Raab, Esher, family life, Government, motherhood, Mothers at Home Matter, mp, news, Prime Minister, United Kingdom

Source: http://www.marilynstowe.co.uk/2013/03/20/government-criticised-for-excluding-stay-at-home-mothers-from-childcare-support/

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