Cameron Considers Tax Relief for Childcare
David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, plans to propose simplified tax relief for childcare, including care by friends and family, seeking to promote his party as family friendly.
In a speech to the National Family and Parenting Institute he said that his party may equalize tax treatment for gay couples in civil partnerships with married couples.
'Our tax system has a direct impact on family life and well-being', he said.
'We must look at the fact that a working man can get tax relief on his mobile phone bill, but a working woman can't get tax relief for someone who looks after her child!'
Childcare costs are not currently tax deductible. Employers who pay staff's care costs can offset that money against tax, and the current tax-credit system will pay up to 80 percent of the costs on a sliding means-tested scale. Cameron said it was a `complicated, top-down approach' and said he wants to make it `more user-friendly.'
With all Conservative policies under long-term review, none of these ideas are firm commitments. Instead Cameron is offering them as `options' for his party's policy groups to consider.
The U.K. has seen uninterrupted economic growth since Blair took office in 1997, making it difficult for the Conservatives to attack the government on the economy. Cameron will instead focus on ``GWB -- the `general well-being' of our nation.''
A poll published June 18 found 41 percent thought Cameron was `in touch with what ordinary people think,' against 27 percent for Prime Minister Tony Blair and 37 percent for Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, Blair's likely successor.
June 2006
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