Prime Minister accused of “slur” on stay at home mothers

20^th March 2013

Aastha Gill

Aastha Gill

20 March 2013

Prime Minister, David Cameron, has been accused of discriminating against stay-at-home mothers after Downing Street announced a new £1billion childcare scheme. In what has been perceived as a “slur” against non-working mothers, Cameron described the scheme as an opportunity for parents who want to “work hard and to get on”.

The new scheme will apply to families where both parents are working or a single parent who is in employment. Under the scheme working parents earning up to £150,000 each will get up to £1,200 to help with child care as, the government have argued, they have a greater need than those who do not work.

The figures show up to 2.5 million families will be able to claim vouchers to subsidise the costs of child care for every child under five from autumn 2015, after next election. The scheme is then expected to be extended to all children under 12 by 2020.

The Labour Party, however, have condemned the scheme stating that the Coalition Government’s new voucher plan will not help everyone. Rather, the Labour Party argue that taking away childcare benefits from many families ignores the interests of 1.2 million parents who choose to stay at home to look after their children.

Answering the concerns, the Treasury commented that there is not enough money to support all families with childcare. The Treasury also insisted that the government is helping stay-at-home mothers and poorer families in other ways like increasing the free early education from 12.5 hours to 15 and denied that stay-at-home mums are being penalised by this new scheme.

The Prime Minister said working mums are in “greater need of state support” than stay-at-home mothers as too many families find paying for childcare tough and are often stopped from working the hours they’d like.

Indeed, Cameron stated, “This is a boost direct to the pockets of hard-working families in what will be one of the biggest measures ever introduced to help parents with childcare costs.”

Aastha Gill