Poverty Trap worsens

The soaring cost of child care is worsening the poverty trap according to a new report commissioned for the save the Children Fund in Scotland. More than one quarter of Scots parents on low incomes cannot work full time because of the cost of registered childcare which has risen by more than 10 per cent this year across most of the country. The average cost of child care in Britain during the holiday season is nearly £90 per week.

The Times has this article

“Joanne Brady, a single mother of two children from Glasgow, is unable to work because she loses more in means-tested child tax credits than she gains in income. “They take 20 per cent off for each child when you go to work. You still have to pay your housing, travel and lunches and it’s just not adequate.” Ms Brady, 27, is among the 28 per cent of parents with children under 18 and an income of less than £15,000.”

And the BBC also covers the report.