Spring Budget 2023
Hunt has listened to the cry of childcare but is he prepared for the cry of separation?
The Chancellor has put another nail in the coffin for mothers wanting to make the choice to stay home to care.
Economic necessity has for years forced mothers into the workplace to plug the family’s income gap. Taxation policies which since the 1990s ceased to take account of the family make it more economically viable for the mother to earn than the father to earn extra income. The Coalition government, by removing child benefit from the higher earner and offering 30 free hours of childcare for 3-4 year olds for parents in paid work, exacerbated the problem that families are penalised when they try to support themselves on one income. Single parents too were affected by the failure of the tax system to support them. In doing so the Coalition government created a void between the end of maternity leave and the start of the free hours that families have since struggled to sustain themselves.
The Treasury’s answer now seems to be to fund childcare with taxpayer money from the age of one. But what does this mean for mothers, for fathers and what does it mean for our babies?
Families on Universal Credit, almost half of all families, have an effective tax rate of 69% (for every extra £1 they earn, 69p goes back to the Treasury in the form of tax). The tax rate is similar for those now entering the higher rate of tax and losing their child benefit; it is over 80% if they have more than two children. What does it mean to take 70% in tax from a family and hand it back as ‘childcare’ – but only if it is outsourced? It is simply an attack on families’ freedom of choice to do what they think is best for their children. Why should ‘childcare’ discriminate against and exclude the option of childcare by mothers at home or indeed fathers or grandparents according to how we need to order our choices?
“The economy will not grow in real terms, there will be a transfer of care from the unpaid to the paid sector, from work done in the home for love to work done by care agencies for money.”
This attack on our freedom is justified in the name of productivity. ‘Getting mothers into paid work will boost the economy and growth’. But it is based on the insulting myth that mothers nurturing babies and toddlers are doing nothing at home; they are ‘inactive economic units’. Anyone who has taken care of babies will know that the job of raising children is anything but inactive. The economy will not grow significantly in real terms, there will be a transfer of care from the unpaid to the paid sector, from work done in the home for love to work done by care agencies for money, but it will be measured as growth in GDP because one can be measured the other can not. Meanwhile, Hunt has failed to tackle the tax system which discourages aspiration, undermines fathers’ ability to earn more and forces increasingly more families onto the benefit system. How long will it take families, particularly those on Universal Credit, to realise that there is no point using the free childcare because for every extra £1 they earn most of it goes straight back to the Treasury?
“There is no research to suggest that external childcare benefits children under three years old. ”
And what is lost? Mothers are being denied the precious privileges of motherhood, witnessing the first steps, the funny words, the infectious laugh and the awesome questions. We are being forced to pay someone else to do the job we long to do and mask the anguish of separation at the nursery door telling ourselves it is good for our career, for our economy.
And what about the children? There is no research to suggest that external childcare benefits children under three years old. The Princess of Wales’ Shaping Us campaign has highlighted the critical importance of the first three years for brain development and building emotional resilience for later life. Children’s mental health is in a state of crisis but we are not prepared to ask ourselves whether allowing parents more time to parent and nurture might be a preventative measure for future illness. Babies need love. The pertinent question is: Who is best placed to give it?
Anne Fennell
Chair, Mothers at Home Matter
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