Why Grans are picking up the bill for childcare

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/laurence-white/why-grans-are-picking-up-the-bill-for-childcare-14246647.html

By Laurence WhiteFriday, 27 March 2009

Grandparents should be paid for looking after their grandchildren, according to a new report.
And 60% of parents agree. I must confess to a vested interest here. I am a grandparent with three adorable grandchildren. My wife and I would happily look after them for nothing — and the Government knows that is the case in ten of thousands of similar households.
Parents can get help through benefits with the fees for leaving their children in nurseries or with registered childminders. That is the only practical option for one of my daughters who lives in another part of the province from us.

She has to use the local nursery for her two young daughters and very good it is too. But it doesn't come cheap. If she lived locally, she would gladly use her mum as the childminder while she and her husband went to work.
Our other grandchild is with us every day. Payment for looking after him is never an issue. His sheer presence is beyond recompense. He is happy, his mum is happy and my wife is happy with the arrangement.

Charity, Grandparents Plus, which campaigns on behalf of the 300,000 grandparents who regularly look after their grandchildren, reckons us old folk save the Government £3.9bn a week — almost enough to bail out a bank. One in four of families and around half of single parents rely on grandparents for childcare. In one respect that is a heartening statistic in an era when the nuclear family is under threat as never before. Grandchildren are the glue that keeps some families together. But it is also a cynical exploitation of family values by the Government.

Ministers know well that grannies (the burden falls mostly on them) are saving them a fortune in childcare tax credits. And the grandparents are likely to play an even bigger role as the recession continues to bite. Many parents will be unable to afford childcare in nurseries or with registered minders and will seek out their own parents to help.
It is surely in the interest of governments, even in times of recession, to ensure that as many people get the opportunity to work as possible. Young children can make that difficult, especially, but not solely, for single parents.

With the working day seemingly getting longer and longer, who will look after the children if parents cannot afford official childcare.
In principle, what is the difference between the care given by grandparents and that given by owners of commercial nurseries or childminders? If any, then the balance must surely go towards the grandparents. If you cannot love your own grandchildren then who can you love?
So what then is the principle that stops grandparents being paid if they perform childcare duties?

The Government believes that trained childminders and nurseries give young children a better start in life than keeping them with grandparents or family members. Its policies have centred on expanding formal childcare.
Some research apparently says that young children reared with grandparents struggle to socialise with peers, are behind at certain early developmental stages and have more behavioural problems. The only benefit is their good vocabulary. The Government says paying grandparents would be a step too far but it will look at other ways of helping.
That sounds very rich coming from politicians who have no difficulty spending billions of taxpayers money bailing out beleaguered banks which were the authors of their own downfall.
Maybe it is time for the grey generation to start standing up for their own rights.