Tax free childcare delayed due to legal challenge by Childcare voucher providers

Over my maternity leave I have met lots of lovely Mums and their gorgeous offspring.  From the broken conversations we’ve managed between toddler taming and baby babbling I’ve gauged many different ‘types’ of Mum.  Those who need to work for financial reasons but would relish the chance to stay home as a full time Mum, those who happily plan to return to work (for their own sanity) and those for whom returning to work is not a financially viable option.

Unless you are a top earner or you are committed enough to work for it to take a bite out of your partners salary, having more than one or two children can mean childcare gobbles up your entire income.

With childcare vouchers only being available to employees within certain organisations and unavailable to self employed parents, many Parents were delighted when the 2013 budget announced the launch of tax free childcare in Autumn 2015.

For EACH CHILD, the government would give 20p for every 80p contributed by parents into a childcare account.  A saving of up to £2000 per child for parents- the difference between a return to work being affordable or not.

So, since hearing from a friend who is unable to financially justify returning to work (beautiful twins on her second pregnancy) I have sought further information on when this financial break will be given to us working parents.

With no updates on the government website or within the realms of google since mid 2014 when “Autumn 2015”, I wrote to my local MSP, to the MP in charge of education and childcare in Westminster.  No response.

I sat down to write this post tonight, entitled “Where’s our tax free childcare?’ and hoorah an update.  Oh hang on, the tax free childcare scheme has been delayed by what?  Usual government lost promises?  A cut in budget?  No.

The reason for the delay is a legal challenge of the lawfulness of tax free childcare by a small group of childcare voucher providers.

On the 1st of July The government issued this press release (a press release which didn’t get much press as far as I can find)

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-confirms-tax-free-childcare-launch-date-as-it-welcomes-judgment-from-supreme-court

The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the legal challenge but these voucher providers have caused the entire scheme to be delayed by at least 2 years.

Meanwhile, working families will be restricted to a maximum of £243/month per family of tax free childcare vouchers for another 2 years and self employed parents will continue to be excluded.

The average cost of pre school childcare in the UK is now £848/month per child, the NHS is on it’s knees and high earning, top end tax payers are unable to return to work because a small group of private childcare providers have managed to stall a government promise by 2 years.

And there has been absolutely no media coverage of this?

In short, anyone waiting for the introduction of tax free childcare in Autumn 2015, hold your job applications.  It is not happening.  #imnotinworkjeremybutidquiteliketobe