Nannies are not just for the wealthy, employment experts have said, as they face exclusion from Rishi Sunak’s free childcare scheme.
The Prime Minister’s flagship policy will offer working parents of two-year-olds 15 hours of care a week from April, while those with children up to the age of four will receive 30 hours a week.
However, the scheme has come under criticism in recent days amid reports that a staffing crisis in the nursery sector, as well as delays to funding packages, risk jeopardising the rollout.
It has now emerged that amid the recruitment crisis, a loophole in the scheme means families who employ nannies could be excluded.
After a century this really is what it hsa come to. The demand that, really now, government should solve the servant problem.
Now yes, I grasp the idea that two families sharing a Nanny over 5 or 6 kids, say, could/would be cheaper than childcare. Partly because they’d be using a house already paid for for other reasons, not dedicated premises. And there are tax wedge issues and so on.
But still. ‘Tis a demand that tax money be used to solve the servant problem, no?
One assumes the nannies will also get free nannying as well.
Wait! What about the health and safety reviews? The risk assessments? The NHS inspections by trained diversity and lived experience advisers? The strategic plan of plans? If Sunak is going to follow the path of that Scottish visionary, Gordon the Brown, there has to be further employment opportunities paid for by the taxpayer!
One assumes deep-voiced hairy-arsed nannies with stonewall accreditation will be well represented. Particularly north of the border.
Why would a Conservative government (ha! My little joke) even have a policy of ‘offering working parents of two-year-olds 15 hours of care a week’..?
This is why we are in the hole we’re in – people spending their money on having other people raise their children for them!
The problem is that it is more-or-less impossible to raise a family on a single income. Mostly thanks to tax. Just avoiding the higher-rate tax bracket (i.e. £50k after pension contributions) netts £3100 per month after tax. £1000 per month mortgage, £600 utilities, £200 council tax, £500 to run a modest car and £50 aside for Christmas and birthdays leaves £750 a month to feed, clothe, fund clubs/activities, put something towards a few days away in the summer? It doesn’t go. The higher-rate starting point simply hasn’t kept up with inflation.
Then, as soon as you get over £50k, you’re clobbered with not only higher rate tax but the child benefit charge. With 3 children, that’s over 70% marginal tax between £50100 and £60k. My wife works 3 days a week, and what she earns is less than my tax bill.
This isn’t some middle class mothers demanding that the taxpayer solves the servant problem, it is the government demanding that mothers work (both in childcare and elsewhere) so that they can tax them.
Matt – The problem is that it is more-or-less impossible to raise a family on a single income.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Chicken dinner.
If not impossible, very, very difficult for people on average incomes due to overpriced housing and the cost of everything. Muslims manage it, but it’s easier to afford stuff when the majority of the population is paying tax to support you.
This isn’t some middle class mothers demanding that the taxpayer solves the servant problem, it is the government demanding that mothers work (both in childcare and elsewhere) so that they can tax them.
See also: our greedy, stupid, British employers.
But treating the mothers of our race as economic units on a spreadsheet isn’t serving us well, is it?
I think that there is an opportunity in an agency specialising in Transnannies.
Psst someone tell Rishi that should he announce a Tory flagship policy of a new au pair Visa scheme for Benelux, French, Skandi and Baltic countries…he could possibly down quite a few birds with that stone.
Nanny state buggers up supply of nannies. Why am I not surprised?
@ Matt
Cash in hand cleaning job – £20 per hour times 40 hours per week is £800 in your hand. Or £3,200 per month which is more than your £50k job gets you.
@Joe Smith
Sorry mate, but that’s not viable. My breakfast companion was holding down 4 daily/hour cleaning jobs in Madrid when she was an illegal. They took up the whole day. You’re not counting getting from job to job. And if they’re doing all the work in one house, they don’t get the rate.
@ BiS
Do full time workers account for the (maybe) two hours commute time/expense in their compensation calculation?
If not, why take it into account for casual cash in hand work?