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TUC: Extra childcare places for low earners are welcome
The government's plans to provide free childcare places for low-income families have been welcomed by a leading union body.
Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said that additional childcare places for parents who have less coming in each month would aid thousands of families and their plans to send their young ones to playgroups and nurseries which they cannot usually afford.
Many people struggle to get benefits from the current system of childcare tax relief, he continued, though means-tested issues may put many families off in their application for places and thousands who are using childcare vouchers at the moment could find they can no longer afford them, he added.
Mr Barber continued: "It would be wrong to pay for the new free places by cutting the support for the vouchers.
"But tax relief is not a fair way to subsidise childcare and in the longer term the government should be working towards offering free childcare places to everyone."
The TUC emphasises its fight against child poverty, noting that 3.8 million children live in poverty in the UK today, meaning one in three; "a shocking figure given the wealth of our nation", it added.
Posted by Matt Gardner
November 12th 2009
