Chancellor’s initiative ‘insulting’ to stay-at-home mums, critics claim
George Osborne has pledged to invest £2 million a year more in childcare to get more women back into work.
The chancellor wants to encourage 450,000 more women into the workplace by the beginning of 2016. The aim is to bring Britain in line with the female employment rate in Germany, one of the highest in the world.
To support this, Osborne will announce the creation of 50,000 further childcare places in this year’s Autumn Statement, the Treasury said.
The government will also introduce tax-free childcare, worth up to 20 per cent of families’ childcare costs, or up to £2,000 per child.
The chancellor begins a tour of companies across different sectors today to see how women are faring in the workplace since the recession.
“There’s more we can do to support women into work. That is why I am visiting women working in all four sectors of the economy to find out what more we can do to support them,” Osborne said.
The Treasury will also extend the Office Childcare Business Grant Scheme, which provides grants of £250 to prospective childminders, and £500 to people looking to start up nurseries in England.
However, critics claimed that the announcement will anger stay-at-home mothers who feel forced back into the workplace, even though Osborne has claimed it will only “support women who want to work”.
Earlier this week, Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail, said employers needed to take tougher action to improve the pipeline of senior women in business, and that improvements in childcare were needed.
Speaking at an event to promote female talent, she said: “One of the most important things to do is to help women take ownership of their ambition and aspirations. It’s still disappointing when you see how young women view their ambition – and how others view that ambition.”
She added that societal expectations of women were “blunting” their ambitions, and said British companies could do more to help directly with childcare, for example by providing a crèche.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the number of women in employment has increased by more than 771,000 to a high of 14.4m since 2010. More than 200,000 of those women in the workforce have dependent children.
Last year, the coalition scrapped child benefit for families with one earner above a threshold of £50,000, affecting around three million families.
According to the Chartered Instituted of Taxation, stay-at-home mothers with a partner earning over the threshold were worst hit by the government’s reforms.
Commenting on Osborne’s announcement, Catherine Kindell, shadow Treasury minister, said: “Women are worse off after four years of David Cameron’s government. The gender pay gap is widening again and House of Commons library figures show George Osborne’s Budget decisions have hit women a staggering four times harder than men.”