Employing a childminder and a very taxing issue

KATE O’CONNELL’S proposal for tax credits for parents who employ childminders in their homes seems at first glance to have a lot going for it.

It gives parents a tax break for employing someone directly and offers an alternative to crèches where the strict hours only suit those who work nine-to-five.

But there are several obstacles, not least the outcry about discrimination from mothers and fathers who may have given up paid employment to raise their children themselves and also feel due some financial reward.

A further stumbling block is the reluctance of many childminders to go ‘on the books’ as it’s known, rather than be paid in cash, like casual babysitters.

Rightly or wrongly, this was the strong preference I met when I needed childcare. The experience of my friends was similar. Middleaged women who had reared families of their own often didn’t see childminding as a regular job, similar to office work say, where benefits like pension and welfare entitlements accumulate.

They saw it as a private arrangement between mothers.

Formally trained childminders will have a more professional outlook and a tax incentive might tempt them out of crèches and into private homes. But for those who up to now have been the mainstay of home-based childminding and those who pay them, the tax incentive will be irrelevant.