Parents who employ nannies may be eligible to claim some of their childcare costs under the Government's new home childcarer scheme - as long as the nanny first becomes a registered childminder.
The Treasury confirmed earlier this week that nannies would at some point be able to join the scheme, which begins in April and is currently open only to registered childminders. Last week the Government said it was 'considering how to widen it to include people who are not already childminders', a move that 'would further extend choice and support for those families who need home-based care, and increase the supply of childcare'.
A Treasury spokeswoman said that the scheme would also be open to relatives of children, such as grandparents, but they would not be allowed to register as childminders and home carers unless they also looked after other people's children too.
The scheme will mean that parents such as those with disabled children or who work shifts and use registered childcarers in their own home will be eligible to claim some of the costs through the childcare element of the new Working Tax Credit, one of the new tax breaks to be introduced in the tax year starting on 6 April.
But with just over two months to go, an Ofsted spokeswoman said it did not expect any childminders to register as home carers until after the scheme begins in April. She acknowledged that this would mean a time lag before parents could access it.
Last week chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown stressed that families earning up to 58,000 would qualify for the new child tax credit, and that 'nine out of ten families with children qualify', with the money being paid to the child's main carer, usually the mother. But the Child Poverty Action Group warned that the requirement to have the new tax credit paid into an account may be deterring some families from claiming it, as many families on low incomes do not have a bank account.
Mr Brown also said he was looking with Patricia Hewitt, trade and industry secretary, at ways of 'enlarging' parents' work-life balance by 'making it easier for employers to contribute to childcare and for families to use a home childcarer, so that people who are not already childminders can take part'. The chancellor said the Government was also considering whether to allow fathers time off to attend antenatal care and to extend paid paternity leave, and 'giving a mother on paid maternity leave help with the costs of putting her child into childcare before returning to work'.
But concerns about the effectiveness of tax credits were raised in the House of Commons last Thursday. Dawn Primarolo, paymaster general, responded that the Government was 'keeping under review how well support for childcare costs within tax credits is working, in particular, the effect that the increased flexibility has on the ability of parents to adjust their childcare requirements to suit their needs'.
She pointed out that it was difficult to estimate how many eligible parents were not claiming the childcare tax credit because of the requirements they had to meet in working more than 16 hours a week with a below-maximum income, using only registered childcare, and having their partner, if they had one, also working more than 16 hours.
