Britain must address its anti-family tax system

Parenting – and indeed any talk of family life – has long been taboo in government. Nothing highlighted this more starkly than the civil service’s practice of referring to parents and children as ‘service users’. This has recently been the subject of a report by the Children’s Commissioner for England, who has urged Whitehall to get to grips with parenting and scrap the phrase, along with any other ‘technocratic’ jargon.

This is all well and good, but Dame Rachel de Souza should start by pushing the Chancellor to do something about the grossly anti-family tax system. The UK tax system unfairly judges parents – mostly mothers – who want to stay at home and look after children rather than spend their life as a workhorse in an office.

Eight in ten mothers of children below school age want the tax system to help them spend more time with their children, rather than being pushed into work.