As the Observer has reported today, based on work from the Resolution Foundation, for many parents the cost of childcare now makes work uneconomic.
There are many dimensions to this: I recall that cost all too well. But I think the biggest issue may be the most important. It's this: that when the state walks away from an issue of concern to society at large it's invariably those least able to bear the cost who pay.
That's happening here.
It's why we need a genuinely progressive tax system linked to a genuinely redistributive social welfare system. And that does not just mean redistributive in the present moment, vital as that it. It means across generations too.
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There are bigger forces at work. Democracy is eroding in this country and our governing politicians have been tuning their impressed ears to the siren call of the big, rich, organised corporates. They don’t care about the fallout, they even doubt government policies can cause poverty, prefering to believe it is down to personal responsibility. You’re poor? It’s your fault. You’re not trying hard enough. It’s depressing.
I found the ‘Outsourcing Yearbook 2012 – Summer Supplement’ on the BDO International website http://www.bdointernational.com/News/Documents/European%20Outsourcing%20Yearbook.pdf
I quote:
So much has happened over the past 25 years! Who would have thought India
would have become a key destination for UK business services — only to be
rivalled by The Philippines and Russia? Or that all the main political parties
would fully support outsourcing and push the public sector to be a major user?
Even that customers and suppliers would partner to share risk and rewards?
There’s never been a better time to be involved in outsourcing.
The truth is that the outsourcing industry is the largest employer in the UK
today, contributes 8% to UK GDP and £35 billion in direct taxes — according
to research from Oxford Economics for the BSA, April 2011. This little told
secret is being exposed and we’re working alongside the NOA on its flagship
campaign ‘Outsourcing Works’ to not just prove that Outsourcing Works, but
also to position the UK as a viable destination for outsourcing delivery itself.
Please read our onshoring research report on page 4, that shows that the UK
has the potential to be the global strategic hub for outsourcing, but that there
are no major plans to backshore everything any time soon.
Kerry Hallard
Director of Communications, National Outsourcing Association
Thank you and your colleagues for everything you’re doing in using your expertise to expose the organised corporate attack on the worlds democratic systems and your work in helping governments and their people tackle the problem. It is the single most important issue out there
Richard, I would love you to a blog post on childcare as an issue. I am self employed — therefore have no access to childcare vouchers (my husband is in the same boat — we’re both sole traders). I have never understood why our childcare costs are not tax deductible. I employ a nanny and pay her on PAYE, all her NI contributions etc. If I employed a PA and asked him/her to look after our kids, it would be tax deductible. Why is a nanny not the same? I genuinely don’t understand why it’s not classed as a business expense. What’s the reason?
I understand all your concern
The reality is that this can’t be done for self employed people without it being done for all employed people
And this would have a massive impact on the tax take that no gov’t has decided to embrace
It’s simply politics: no gov’t has been persuaded subsidising children by that much is worth it
They ignore the fact that the nanny’s would pay tax in doing so, which is, I suspect, the flaw in their logic