I received the following email this week from a woman in corporate life who points to the unfairness of the government’s approach to salary sacrificing the cost of child care:
There hasn’t been much in the press lately about the cost of childcare, so
I was hoping you may be able to raise this issue again. I have three
children: one in primary school, aged 7 years, and the other two (4 years
old and 5 months old) attending an excellent long day care centre.The
combined cost of before school care, long day care fees and an after school
nanny is running at $53,000 annually. I don’t begrudge the actual cost of
care, but I am horrified that I cannot salary sacrifice these costs, when I
can salary sacrifice a car.
I understand that employer-sponsored childcare places can enable salary
sacrifice, however, I choose to have my children in a not-for-profit KU
Childcare Centre, so even if my company were to provide employer-sponsored
childcare, I wouldn’t move my children away from the centre they are
currently attending.
Fortunately I earn a very decent salary, but even so, these costs combined
with the effort involved in getting three children out of the house by 7am
in the morning, then bathed and fed by 7.30 in the evening, makes us wonder
what on earth we are doing. We are currently contemplating having one
parent retire from the workforce.
The political party that promises to allow salary sacrifice for childcare
costs at ALL centres, without the link through an employer, is the
political party that will get the family vote.
Kind regards
Sharon Clark
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