Tory group calls for £1.6bn family tax cut so mums can stay home

Back stay-at-home mothers with £1.6billion tax break for middle-class families, says Tory pressure group which argues they are being ‘penalised’ by the system for not going out to work

• The New Conservatives want High Income Child Benefit Charge scrapped
• They argue it penalises families where a parent stays home to raise the children 

Middle-class families should get tax cuts worth up to £1.6billion to encourage mothers to stay at home and raise children.

The New Conservatives, made up of MPs elected since 2016, want ministers to scrap the High Income Child Benefit Charge, which claws back automatic state handouts from people earning more than £50,000.

In a report released today, MPs Miriam Cates and Nick Fletcher argue that the charge is unfair because it means families with two parents both earning £50,000 – a combined £100,000 – would pay less tax than a family where one parent earns £75,000 and the other £25,000 or even less.

They argue it should be scrapped at a cost of £1.6billion to ease the pressure on families where the parents do not share earnings equally. 

It forms part of an almost £7billion of proposed tax cuts that also includes increase in the VAT threshold and changes to tax rules for the self-employed, paid for by ‘cuts (in) wasteful spending on quangos, diversity training schemes, and other divisive political initiatives.’

Launching the report at the Conservative Party Conference today, Mr Fletcher said: ‘This tax penalises those families where one parent, usually mum, stays at home to look after small children while the other parent works. Such a family will pay higher tax than another family where both parents work, yet earn the same joint wage.

‘To be penalised for the structure of earnings in a household makes no sense. And it is particularly bad when we know that many women want to spend the early years at home with their children, and also that this is good for small children, where it is possible. 

Launching the report at the Conservative Party Conference today, Mr Fletcher said: ‘This tax penalises those families where one parent, usually mum, stays at home to look after small children while the other parent works. Such a family will pay higher tax than another family where both parents work, yet earn the same joint wage.’

The New Conservatives, made up of MPs elected since 2016, want ministers to scrap the High Income Child Benefit Charge, which claws back automatic state handouts from people earning more than £50,000.

At a separate event this morning Ms Cates said that the ‘ideal’ family was ‘mum and dad in a stable permanent relationship’.

‘Yet I’m sure parents attempt to do this, but are penalised and ask ‘’what’s the point?’’’

At a separate event this morning Ms Cates said that the ‘ideal’ family was ‘mum and dad in a stable permanent relationship’. 

She told an event on ‘restoring conservatism, restoring prosperity: ‘I absolutely want to make clear that I acknowledge that there are families of all shapes and sizes, the vast majority doing their absolute best, often in very difficult circumstances, to raise children and contribute to society, and they deserve our thanks and our support. 

‘And it’s true that family breakdown is sometimes inevitable, even preferable. And I’m not saying that only certain types of family can be strong. 

‘But if we’re going to be truthful, and there is not enough truth, then we have to acknowledge that the evidence is clear that there is an ideal when it comes to the family. 

And that ideal is mum and dad in a stable permanent relationship, raising children as part of an extended family and the neighborhood to pass on virtues heritage and prosperity.

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