Nursery World - Brass tax

The Government seems to have come up with half a policy on helping parents pay for childcare in their homes, says Stephen Vahrman - but it still leaves nannies out in the cold Nannies and the parents who employ them will be affected by two important policy announcements in Chancellor Gordon Brown's April Budget speech. They come down to a matter of: do you want the bad news first, or the even worse news?

Nannies and the parents who employ them will be affected by two important policy announcements in Chancellor Gordon Brown's April Budget speech. They come down to a matter of: do you want the bad news first, or the even worse news?

The one with the most immediate impact on nannies' wages and parents' costs was the 1 per cent increase in both employers' and employees' National Insurance (NI) contributions from April 2003, the start of the next tax year. But the one with possibly greater significance in the long term was the announcement of the creation of a new category of 'home childcarer'. This, subject to earnings criteria, would extend the system of childcare tax credits available for working parents by including credit for some form of government-regulated childcare in the child's own home for the first time. The wider implications of both of these policy announcements have only become clear in the period following the Budget announcements, and both of these issues certainly call for closer scrutiny.

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