Clause 12 - Child care element
Tax Credits Bill
4:45 pm
Ms Karen Buck (Regent's Park and Kensington North, Labour)
I beg to move amendment No. 87, in page 8, line 27, after 'provided', insert
'whether in the child's home or elsewhere'.
The argument has been well rehearsed. I raised this issue when we discussed the working families tax credit on Second Reading. It extends entitlement to the child care component of the tax credit to the provision of child care in the person's own home. There are two clusters of beneficiaries. The first are children with special needs and disabilities. I am grateful to Mencap for its briefing on this. It is concerned about children who need specialist care that is not closely accessible, such as in a special nursery that is not nearby, or care that is provided by a specialist carer in the home. Parents of such children are not currently entitled to draw down the child care component of the credit.
Mencap gives a helpful example of
''a working mother, Sue Knight who has a 5-year-old son, with multiple disabilities and is tube fed. In the holidays, he needs someone from a registered agency to come into the house to look after him because he needs higher levels of support than child minders. The Inland Revenue rejected her childcare expenses as part of her Working Families Tax Credit claim. The letter from the Inland Revenue makes it clear that they would pay if her son could leave the house and go to a childminder or a club.''
That was not possible because of his disability and the intense support he required. That case illustrates perfectly the point. I will not add any more.
The second group of potential beneficiaries are those who work antisocial hours. As a parent of a young child I recognise that parents who work from 3 pm to 8 pm are reluctant to move their child from child care in the evening, even assuming that such child care is available. That is a strong disincentive to people taking work.