HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Largest financial boost for mothers since child benefit, says Brown [January 2003]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 14 January 2003.

A massive transfer of resources – up to £2 billion – will go from men to women through the new Tax Credits from April this year, said Chancellor Gordon Brown today, as a new poll shows that two-thirds of people believe that all support for children should be paid to the mother, and only one per cent think it should be paid to the father.

Even the vast majority of men believe all support for children should be paid to the mother: 64 per cent believed that it should be paid to the mother and only 1 per cent that it should go to the father.

70 per cent of all those polled said that the mother is most likely to ensure that the money goes to the needs of the children. While 28 per cent said it made no difference which parent received the money, only two per cent said fathers would be most likely to ensure that the money goes to the needs of the children.

Mr Brown and Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt also published wide ranging proposals to help parents balance work and family life.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said:

“April’s new Tax Credits are the biggest financial boost for mothers since the introduction of Child Benefit, and evidence shows that money paid direct to mothers is more likely to be spent on the child, than if it goes to fathers. Up to £2 billion will be transferred from dads, to mums – for their children.

“We want to put families first by helping parents as they do the most important and difficult job of all – getting their children off to a good start in life.”

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said:

“The new package of rights we are bringing in next April will give parents more choice and support than ever before to balance work and family life in ways which will be good for everyone – employers, employees and their children. The ‘right to request’ will help deliver modern, flexible, productive workplaces for all, with balanced benefits for both employers and employees.”

Mr Brown and Patricia Hewitt launched Balancing Work and Family Life: enhancing choice and support for parents which looks to enable parents to make choices and balance work and family life and asks for views on possible next steps including:

• following consultation on the home childcarers scheme, how to widen entry into the scheme to include people who are not already childminders;
• improving the tax and NICs exemptions on employer-supported childcare, including how they could offer a better incentive to employers to support childcare provision;
• whether to allow fathers time off to attend ante-natal care and the case for extending paid paternity leave in cases of multiple births and disabled children; and
• the case for allowing a mother on paid maternity leave to claim support with the childcare costs for her new child in order to settle her child into childcare prior to returning to work.