Childcare Costs Mean A Choice Of Debt Or Unemployment For Many Parents

Rather than facilitating work, the huge cost of childcare in the UK is a daunting obstacle – and government cuts worsen the bind.












David Cameron visits a nursery in London. His government's reduction of tax credits has made childcare even more costly for working parents.

I could understand why my bank manager was looking at me like that. It did sound a bit stupid. "You're about to start a job, and that means you need to extend your overdraft?" he said, dubiously. After years of scratching around as a student, I was finally about to draw a wage – but first, I needed to get myself just a bit deeper in debt.

I have two children, so before I could set foot in my office, I needed somewhere to put them, and childcare has to be paid for in advance. That's no minor outlay here in the UK, where we have the highest childcare costs relative to household income of anywhere in the world. A survey by the Daycare Trust and Save the Children explains how much of a barrier and a burden this can be, particularly to families on low incomes. Of the parents questioned, a quarter said that the cost of childcare had caused them to get into debt, but it's the poorest families (those with a household income of less than £12,000 a year) who experience the most crippling effects.

While the better off may have to compromise on swimming lessons or music tuition to cope with higher-than-inflation rises in nursery fees, the more impoverished are often forced to cut back on essentials such as food or heating to make up the difference. And sometimes, ends simply can't be met: a quarter of those in severe poverty said that they had given up work because of childcare costs. A third of them had passed on a job offer for the same reason, and a quarter reported that the expense of childcare had prevented them from taking up education or training.

Rather than facilitating work, childcare becomes a daunting obstacle, keeping parents out of the workplace – and the poorer a family is, the more likely it is to remain in poverty for the lack of money to cover nursery fees. Single-parent families without savings or access to credit are effectively shut out of work.

The government likes to talk about getting people off welfare and into the workplace. "Over the last decade, thousands of people were simply abandoned to a lifetime on benefits, and a staggering 1.84 million children are living in homes where no one works," said employment minister Chris Grayling last week. Rightwing analyses talk about the "lack of work ethic … helping to fuel levels of unemployment".

But it's practical, financial limitations more than nebulous psychological causes that are often keeping parents from becoming employees, and the government's actions so far seem likely to worsen the childcare bind. Working tax credit was sliced in this year's budget, so that it now covers only 70% rather than 80% of childcare costs – a huge difference in the finances of those who need help the most. As the cuts agenda combines with a sneering rhetoric of disdain for the unemployed, this just seems like one more way of keeping the poorest poor, from cradle to grave.

RAF Flies £140m Unfrozen Cash Assets To Libya

The RAF has flown £140m of Libyan banknotes (280m Libyan dinars) to Libya after an assets freeze aimed at Col Muammar Gaddafi was lifted.









People rushed to get cash from their accounts after the Libyan banks reopened on Tuesday.

The cash, printed in the UK, is the first tranche of £950m that will be handed to Libya's Central Bank.

A Whitehall official said the money should be available for cash machines and banks in Libya very quickly.

Meanwhile, the BBC has learned that David Cameron set up a unit to block fuel supplies to Col Gaddafi's forces.

The secret "Libya oil cell" also ensured that petrol and diesel continued to get through to the rebels in the east, BBC deputy political editor James Landale said.

The Whitehall-based unit was made up of a handful of civil servants, ministers and military figures.

"If you didn't have the fuel, you couldn't win the war"

Whitehall source

It played a crucial role in starving the regime's war effort of fuel while making sure that the rebels could continue taking the fight to Gaddafi, Whitehall officials told our correspondent.


Our correspondent said the unit was the idea of International Development Minister Alan Duncan. He was unavailable for comment on Wednesday evening.

The former oil trader convinced the Mr Cameron in April that part of the solution to the conflict lay in oil, our correspondent said.

One Whitehall source said: "If you didn't have the fuel, you couldn't win the war. So our aim was to starve the west of fuel and make sure the rebels could keep going.

"Gaddafi had lots of crude but he couldn't refine it. So he had to rely on imported fuel. And we turned off that tap."

The unit was established in the Foreign Office and was initially headed by a senior admiral, and later by a senior government official.

The operation gathered intelligence about oil and fuel movements, and information was passed to the government and Nato.
'Britain's commitment'

The release of the Libyan currency came following a decision by the United Nations sanctions committee in New York.

The official said the cash delivery, worth $1.55bn, should make it possible to pay many public sector workers, including nurses, doctors, teachers and police officers, over the Eid holiday.

Many of those dependent on government salaries have not been paid for a number of months.

The money will also be used to provide aid for refugees displaced by the conflict and to pay for medicine and food supplies.

The funds were frozen in February when the uprising in Libya started.

The move comes on the eve of a major international conference on the future of Libya to be held in Paris on Thursday, chaired jointly by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the UK prime minister.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was "delighted" the delivery to the Central Bank in Benghazi had been completed.

"Returning money to the Libyan people is part of our commitment to help the National Transitional Council rebuild Libya and help create a country where the legitimate needs and aspirations of the Libyan people can be met," said Mr Hague.

He added further deliveries of the remaining funds would be made shortly.
Ship held

Germany has also asked for agreement to release about 1bn euros (£900m) in seized assets, while France wants to unfreeze about 5bn euros (£4.4bn) to help pay for humanitarian aid and keep essential services going in Libya.

Last week, the UN agreed to a US request to unblock $1.5bn (£1bn) in frozen Libyan assets.

In March, a ship carrying Libyan currency worth £100m was impounded.

The Home Office said the ship was intercepted by UK authorities after heading back to British waters following an aborted attempt to dock at Libya's capital, Tripoli.

The money, which was printed in north-east England, was held at Harwich, Essex.

Green Groups Urge Planning Reform Rethink

Conservationists and green campaigners urged ministers today to rethink planning reforms which they warned would see "damaging, free-for-all" developments spread.


















The call came as Planning Minister Greg Clark said that he was willing to meet the National Trust and others over fears of a "development free-for-all" under the new National Planning Policy framework.

Chief among the minister's controversial shake-ups is a "presumption in favour of sustainable development at the heart of the planning system.

"Local planning authorities should plan positively for new development and approve all individual proposals wherever possible," it said.

But environmental and heritage groups have criticised the proposals, saying the presumption would undermine the government's own creed of "localism" and make major projects - such as incinerators and factory farms - all but impossible to refuse.

Mr Clark said today he was happy to discuss the "wording" of the policy, but ruled out any U-turn. His critics had "the wrong end of the stick" - sustainability meant the developers had taken into account their effect on the community and environment, he said.

"The consequences would be to continue the position we are in where we are not building enough homes for the people needing them for the first time. We are contributing to homelessness, to overcrowding, to poverty."

But Friends of the Earth campaigns director Craig Bennett was unmoved. The proposals still threatened the countryside while doing little to curb climate change or carbon emissions, he said.

"It's essential that we develop the UK's huge green energy potential and build more fuel efficient and affordable homes.

"Ministers must think again or risk having another fiasco like the outcry over forests on their hands," he said.

Pensioners Could Face Winter Fuel Cash Cuts

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has dismissed reports that millions of pensioners and middle class families could see their benefits cut as "speculation".












Mr Clegg said it would be "irresponsible" to offer a running commentary about rumours of where spending will be cut.

The details will not be confirmed until October, he told Sky News.

"This is all speculation in the middle of August, when the comprehensive spending round hasn't even been decided yet," he added.

His remarks followed reports in the Daily Telegraph that ministers are looking to raise the age at which pensioners are eligible for the winter fuel allowance, from 60 years to 66.

Child benefit could also be scaled back, with reports suggesting parents in the top tax bracket could lose out.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Works and Pensions echoed Mr Clegg and said it was "not going to provide a running commentary" on what was being considered.

The Treasury also declined to comment on which payments could face the axe.












But a spokesman said the Government has made clear its "intention to look for further reforms" to the welfare system.

The Times also suggested winter fuel payments might be cut, as part of a £13bn reduction of the welfare bill to pay for changes proposed by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

Winter fuel payments, introduced in the winter of 1997, cost about £2.7bn a year.

Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to keep the winter fuel allowance during the general election leaders' debates.

But the Liberal Democrats campaigned on a platform of reforming the payment by raising the age-related threshold to 65 to extend them for severely disabled people.












The coalition agreement pledges to "protect key benefits for older people such as the winter fuel payment", but does not rule out reform.

According to the Government's website Directgov, the qualifying age for winter fuel payments is already rising in line with the increase in women's state pension age - set to equalise at 65 by 2020.

Ministers have proposed speeding up plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66, possibly by as early as 2016.

Labour leadership candidate Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron should return from holiday to clear up the speculation.

It would be an "outrageous broken promise" if the Prime Minister axed benefits he had previously suggested he could keep, Mr Miliband told Sky News.