UK government to withdraw tax relief on childcare vouchers
Gordon Brown recently announced that the UK government will be withdrawing tax relief on childcare vouchers much to the dismay of working families in the UK. While the money saved will be used to increase the number of childcare places available across the UK there is growing concern that families most in need will potentially be forced to give up their employment to look after their children.
The UK government has cited various "abuses" of the childcare voucher system with an example of a private school in the south of England accepting childcare vouchers as payment for after-school clubs. Even though the government has highlighted a number of various "abuses" of the system the truth is that it has become too expensive to operate and the government would rather spend the money put aside for this particular scheme on a much smaller section of society.
There is also a feeling that this transfer of funding from the wider working family population to the low-income family population is nothing but a pre-election "bribe" for potential Labour voters. Whether this is a little harsh on not, the fact is that these changes are being made just prior to the election at the same time as the Labour Party has again gone on the attack against middle-income and high-income families in the UK.
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