A: I know that many grandparents often play a very important role in providing childcare for their families. But I don't think that it is appropriate for government to interfere in these relationships. If we extended the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit to include care provided by grandparents and other relatives, it would lead to a level of government intervention that many families would resent.
Whenever government funding is involved, we have to link that funding with quality assurance. After all, we have to be sure that the taxpayer is getting value for money. In the case of childcare, there would have to be checks, for instance by the Criminal Record Bureau, on grandparents and other carers' which many people would find an inappropriate and unwelcome intrusion into their private lives.
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