Sunday 7 February 2016

Flowchart: Free early education, Working Tax Credits/Childcare element, Employer Supported Childcare or Tax Free Childcare?

In my capacity as number-cruncher for the Citizen's Income Trust, I have spent this weekend trying to get the bottom of all the overlapping schemes which various government bodies administer. To simplify things in my mind I had to create a flowchart.

The joke is that whichever route you take and whichever of the three boxes at the bottom you land in, you end with with benefits/discounts worth about £90/week for every child aged 2 to 4 at a registered nursery or child minder. Only instead of bumping up the Free Early Education to £90/week and calling it a day, they split it up into smaller amounts, all with their own conditions attached.

Why do they make it so complicated? Don't answer that.

5 comments:

Sackerson said...

That's a public service, send it to your MP.

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, thanks, but hopefully I can cajole the CIT into doing it, it sounds better coming from them.

Lola said...

But, think of all those jobs that would be lost if the system was simplified!

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, did I not say "Don't answer that"?

Lola said...

MW - apologies...