Six million families will be eligible for financial support with the launch this month of the new Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit schemes, and many of them will also be able to claim assistance with childcare costs.
The changes are part of the Government's long-term drive to encourage families off benefit dependency and into the labour force. But for some people, trying to juggle the competing demands made on their low incomes proves an unequal struggle and they fall behind with their childcare fees.
Indeed, Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, says, ' A lot of people these days are not used to handling money. If the children need new shoes or the exhaust falls off the car and the childcare fees are due, which gets paid? Nurseries are ending up as debt counsellors.'
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