Grandparent carers set to receive credit from the UK government
With UK grandparents providing childcare across the UK to tune of £3.9 billion a year many people believe that recognition of this vital element of UK society was long overdue. As a consequence, Alistair Darling has announced that those caring for children under the age of 12 for more than 20 hours a week will receive tax credits towards a national pension.
While the figure of £3.9 billion in child care a year, given for free by grandparents, is enormous, there is real concern that as the recession continues to bite and free cash becomes harder to come by, more and more parents will pull their children out of nursery. This could well place more pressure on grandparents and other relatives to look after children during working hours when their parents are not available.
This is a scheme which has been rumoured and suggested for many years and even though the scheme has been confirmed in this year's budget, it will not come into play until April 2011. As with so many budget schemes which seem to give something back to the UK public, they have been delayed, watered-down or have limited use to the vast majority of the UK public.
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