On Sky news on 6th September 2011 Iain McMath, MD from Sodexo Motivation Solutions and Dr Sheila Lawlor from Politeia commented on recent survey finding that the rising costs of childcare is putting Britain’s parents in debt
The recent survey by the DayCare trust and Save the Children has revealed that nearly a quarter of UK parents are finding that the rising cost of childcare is putting them in debt. For many parents the choice about whether to go back to work rests on rising childcare costs (which now accounts for an average of 1/3 of parent’s income).
Iain McMath suggested that companies can really help by offering their staff childcare voucher schemes. “The word we need to use here is ‘Choice’. We need to give parents the choice of what they want to do. Childcare voucher schemes allow parents to receive a tax break on childcare costs and save up to £933 per parent each year and that can just perhaps tip the balance for a lot of families who are trying to juggle work life and bring up their children effectively. One of the key things to consider here is the valuable contribution that mothers that go back to work can make to the economy.”
McMath also added that many SME businesses are unaware of the benefits to be gained from childcare voucher schemes both to themselves and their staff. “The childcare voucher programme is being offered to a lot of parents through larger companies but unfortunately there just isn’t the awareness among the smaller companies. If you consider that a lot of SME’s and also some of the larger companies have given wage freezes but if they offered childcare vouchers they could effectively offer a salary increase of just under £1,000 which is significant and it is available for both parents.”
McMath suggested that the government could help more in two ways. Firstly by better education and communication of the benefits of Childcare voucher programmes and secondly by keeping the voucher scheme in line with inflation. “If the vouchers had stayed in line with inflation the amount now would be £73 per week (rather than £55 per week). It would make little difference to the tax income for the exchequer but a huge difference to parents who would benefit from a better work life balance by perhaps working less hours and managing their childcare more efficiently.”
This is an extremely challenging economic climate for parents. Employers, parents and childcare providers all need to ensure that they are accessing the support that is out there to help with the cost of childcare by taking advantage of childcare vouchers schemes. By companies offering childcare vouchers they will help ease the burden for their employees (who are parents) and thereby motivating and retaining their valuable staff.
Watch the interview in full: