Perhaps this is because I came into parenting as an older mum, having had 15+ years of career behind me. I missed the banter of the office, the pressure, the stress and the sense of achievement. Of course my children gave me some of that - don't take it that I am some soulless person with no maternal ability, but they couldn't give me everything I needed. I just knew that I would be a better mum if I wasn't with them 24/7. That I would cherish the time I spent with them, knowing that my life wasn't just an endless cycle of nappies, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, discussing the merits of baby led weaning and playing Peekaboo. So I looked at returning to work only to find that in reality it was not nearly as simple as it seemed in theory.
Firstly, there was the issue of finding a job in recession struck Britain. Then there was the surprising harder issue of finding a job in recession struck Britain that was viable with the costs and time constraints of childcare. My husband has a very full time job with unpredictable hours and travel. This means he can not be relied upon at all to assist with childcare. Like many mums, childcare became something that was solely my responsibility to source and make fit around MY working hours. I searched for 3 long months for a job that fit. I would find something perfect for my skills then discover the hours simply wouldn't work. Childminders wouldn't start before 7.30am. Living in a rural area all jobs require travelling so an 8am start simply wasn't viable. Neither was a 7pm finish, or working weekends. Then there was the issue of cost. With two children under two, a minimum wage job wouldn't even make a dent in the cost of childcare. So I was seeking the impossible it seemed. Skilled work on a decent wage with part time hours and a degree of flexibility.
Finally after countless applications, I found the job that was perfect. That should have been an end to it, but this is where my post really starts. To put both children in childcare for 24 hours a week costs more than I earn. My older daughter will get funding the term after she turns 3 but that is a long way off and I don't want to be at home until then. Firstly because I simply can not afford to and secondly because 3 years off the career ladder will make my skills rusty and leave a massive hole in my CV - work would be even harder find.
Thankfully, good old mum agreed to help out and have the girls 2 out of the 4 days I work. If this were not the case I simply wouldn't be able to. As my husbands wage is above the threshold we get no help with costs via the Tax Credits system. Now I realise that on paper, this looks as though I have nothing to complain about - that am whining unfairly despite being in a higher threshold of earners. Its not that I expect to be given hand outs - far from it. My point is that the UK has by far the highest childcare costs in Europe and a tiered system that benefits those on low incomes and forces higher earners out of work. I'm not talking about Senior Executives here, those on 6 figure salaries who can afford live in nannies. I'm talking about middle earners - those with mortgages and earnings just above the Tax Credit cut off. I am skilled and experienced and by my going to work I become another tax payer, and my taxes help to pay for lower income parents to put their children in daycare and go to work. Yet I am all but prohibited from doing this. Think of the number of potential UK tax paying women who could and would work if it were viable for them to do so. Who could and would stay in work until retirement age, working longer hours as their children grew up. By pricing these women out of work when their children are at pre school age, you forfeit their long term earnings and tax paying potential. The system in other European countries caps the cost of childcare, making it an even playing field for ALL working men and women. I think it would be prudent for the UK to employ a similar system.
I take this quote from an article in The Independent February 2012
Number crunching: Why a universal system makes economic sense
Parents in the UK face the highest childcare costs in Europe, spending, on average, a third of their income on fees. So is there a better solution?
If it provided universal childcare for pre-school-age children, the Government could make more than £20,000 for every mother returning to full-time work after one year of maternity leave, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research. The think tank suggests that, once you take off the childcare costs, the Treasury could still take back £20,050 in taxes over a four-year period.
By getting more parents working, and improving the productivity of children through teaching them from an earlier age, experts argue that subsidised childcare can boost government coffers. Funding universal childcare for all one- to four-year-olds would result in a net profit for the Government of £40bn over a 65-year period, according to a report in 2003 by the Social Market Foundation, Daycare Trust and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The proportion of income spent by British parents is three times that paid by French families and more than four times that spent by parents in Denmark and Sweden.
Some 33 per cent of under-threes are in formal childcare in the UK – lower than Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
This argues that by supporting higher income working mothers in returning to work with subsidised childcare, would return a viable profit for the Government.
I know there is an argument that having children is a choice, and if it is a choice a parent can not afford they shouldn't do it. I have read countless responses on blogs and articles stating that women should 'just stay at home if they chose to have children' yet I don't see that argument ever pointed at fathers. Why invest training and education on women if our careers are going to be cut short as soon as we decide to have a family. It's not about wanting 'it all' it's about finding an economic balance both for the individual, the family and the country.
Here are some articles relating to the concerns:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2034266/Childcare-costs-parents-working-prices-rise-twice-fast-wages.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/childcare-in-britain-parents-paying-an-unsustainable-price-for-care-7440948.html
As a single mum who is currently self employed, planning on returning to an employed job soon I am having the exact same trouble.
ReplyDeleteI know i will get Tax credits but with the change in qualifying hours being so dramatic I am unsure if returning to work is a good idea now until my son starts school in September and even then will i even FIND a job.
But really that is a whole other discussion.
Childcare must be reduced, for all. The reality for many now is that work is impossible, Something not even worth considering, or like myself is worthy of hot sweats, over emotional outbursts and sleepless nights.
In my sons first year in full time childcare i earned £13,000 and paid £11,750 in childcare fees. Were is the logic in that. After normal bills, daily expenses it was not worth me going to work. It's shocking
The only thing that worries me about the idea of universal childcare is that it will put pressure on the mums who don't want to go back to work. We all know anyway that whether you're a SAHM or a working mum, there's always an element of having to justify your decision, and I fear that may be harder if it became the social norm for all mums to be expected to return to work within a year of their youngest child's birth. I do absolutely agree that childcare is far too expensive and with all the changes the government have made to tax credits and are making to child benefit, it is taking away the choice from many mothers who would rather work (*waves hand frantically!*). There's just no easy answer. Is there a way that childcare could be made more accessible without it resulting in society then expecting all mothers to take it up and get themselves back into paid employment?
ReplyDelete