October 1999

Childcare workers gear up for tax credit revolution (October 27, 1999)

Insurance giants withdraw "sick" advert (14 October, 1999)

Sir Trevor launches vision thing (October 1, 1999)

Childcare workers gear up for tax credit revolution

Childcare workers across the district have been preparing for the introduction this month of the new Working Families Tax Credit, which promises a major shake up in nurseries and out-of-school play schemes. The new Tax Credit will mean extra money in the pay packet for thousands of working families.

For private childcare providers it means a recognition of the true value of their work. But for subsidised schemes it threatens a major change in the way they are funded.

Dawn Harkins of Gingerkidz, an out of school scheme in Thorpe Edge, said:

"Some parents will be given funds to pay 70% of their childcare costs. There will be more competition between the voluntary and private sector as parents will have access to schemes which they couldn't afford before. Children will benefit because parents will have more choice, choosing a scheme which best matches their child's needs and is more accessible to them."

But there remains widespread ignorance about the scheme. Dawn said:

"I think there is a lot of confusion at the moment as some families and childcare providers are still unclear as to how the WFTC will work in practice. Families who are not eligible for Family Credit currently may not realise they may be entitled to the new tax credit. More work needs to be done to inform these families."

A number of meetings arranged by Bradford TEC have aimed at informing childcare workers about the scheme.

"Training has only just become available and information should have been provided at least six months ago. Instead we're only one step ahead of parents" said Dawn. "Parents are already questioning childcare providers about the credit and many of them are not trained to provide this advice."

Already a number of families have been surprised to discover they are eligible for help.

Josie works full time with a take home pay of £180 a week. Her 18 year old son is still at school. She is eligible for almost £30 tax credit a week. Pauline has two small jobs, working as a dinner lady and cleaner. But she works a total of 16 hours, taking home £60. She has a 5 year old at school, and is due £72 a week tax credit, plus help for out of school costs in the holidays.

KDIS is offering a free Tax Credit Calculator to download, for users of Excel 97. Click here.

See also Inland Revenue Tax Working Families Tax Credit pages.

Insurance giants withdraw "sick" advert

A "sick" advertising leaflet produced by Insurance giants AXA Sun Life and delivered to hundreds of homes in the Bradford South area early this week, has been withdrawn.

The leaflet, picturing an abandoned child on an empty railway platform with a darkened train in the background, carries the legend "It's not the end of his World if you're a bit late, but if you die?"

Resident Glen Reidman told KDIS "When it dropped through my door I was shocked. I couldn't believe they'd dish out an advert like this just one week after the Paddington rail crash. It's sick."

A spokesman for AXA Sun Life said: "We can only offer our profuse apologies. This is an advertising campaign that's been running since early October. Now, obviously, as soon as the train crash happened we realised that those ads were out there and we have done our utmost to get them withdrawn as fast as we possibly can. There shouldn't be any more around now."

A post office worker confirmed that instructions to withdraw the leaflet had been issued last week: "I assume everybody got the same communication. It sounds like some have slipped through the net though."

Another said: "The leaflet got passed around and we just thought it was in really poor taste. I know some staff raised it with the management. Either there was a communication failure on the part of management, someone just cocked up, or a directive was deliberately ignored by commercial managers in the interest of profit".

Stuart Charlesworth, regional head of door to door leaflets for the Post Office, insisted that none of the leaflets had been delivered this week. He confirmed that they should have been withdrawn last week, but refused to comment further.

Graham Mahannon for AXA Sun Life said:

"Well I know that the part of the company that deals with this was in touch with the post office, centrally of course, and the post office agreed with us and every effort was made through the post office to inform everywhere within their organisation where these were being sent not to deliver them.

"There are some similar posters as well which we got covered up, but obviously it was just not physically possible to make it absolutely 100%."

He thought their efforts had been largely successful, although AXA Sun Life had received some complaints since:

"Obviously, yes we have had some, but we haven't actually had a flood of them".

But one postal worker remains unconvinced:

"I couldn't believe it when I saw it, it's just unfortunate. Personally I thought it was a shocking ad anyway, even without what's happened."

AXA Sun Life are also sponsors of the FA Cup.

Since we first posted this article, a number of people living in the Manningham area have contacted KDIS to say that they too had these leaflets delivered to their homes. If you live elsewhere and have received one, please let us know.

See: letter to KDIS.

See also: Fury at newspaper ad.

Sir Trevor launches vision thing

Trevor McDonald of ITN News fame swept into Bradford yesterday, hired by the Council to chair a debate as part of the 2020 Vision consultation process. And a competent cheerful job he made of it too.

300 invited people gathered in the Stakis Hotel to put their points to a panel of 8, including Council leader Ian Greenwood. Questioners welcomed the fact that the consultation process is happening but there was a certain scepticism about whether anything would be translated into action. After all, we've been here before; Bradford's Bouncing Back, Better Bradford Campaign and so on. More recently, as a Tong Park school governor pointed out, all the consultation in the world had still resulted in his school being closed against parents wishes.

The call from the platform was for a grand millennial vision, however the mood amongst the audience was for smaller "bottom up" solutions.

There was no shortage of ideas about how to make Bradford successful but in the end it will all come down to resources and it will be government grants which dictate what gets done. For instance, there was widespread agreement when a discussion on crime focussed on communities directly reclaiming their own spaces and people looking out for each other as the most effective way to tackle crime and the fear of crime. But what will we get? More CCTV cameras because that's what the government is offering money for.

Ian Greenwood was quite clear and convincing when he said that he intended that the process would produce results which would benefit the whole of Bradford. The success or otherwise of the 2020 vision will be his legacy.

KDIS has done its bit by submitting our own positive vision for Bradford in 20 years time. Check it out and send us your comments.

See: Dare to be different.

See also Councils 2020 site, where you can add your own views: 2020 Vision

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