1 4 CULTURAS PRECOLOMBINAS.

CAPÍTULO PRIMERO

Table 5.4 gives the costs of pre-school childcare that an employed lone parent and a two earner couple would be expected to pay for the most prevalent form of full-time childcare in their country.

Table 5.4

Costs of full-time pre-school childcare per month. Most

prevalent type of pre-school childcare in each country. After

direct and indirect subsidies but before taxes and benefits.

£ ppp

Lone parent with one child aged <3 Couple with one child aged <3

Country Case1 Case 3 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7

Australia -89 -89 -125 -300 -340 Austria -36 -36 -72 -116 -116 Belgium -25 -101 -136 -186 -207 Canada -324 -324 -324 -324 -324 Denmark 0 -30 -84 -167 -167 Finland 0 0 -75 -119 -119 France -140 -140 -140 -186 -186 Germany 0 0 -225 -225 -225 Greece 0 0 -192 -192 -192 Ireland -375 -375 -375 -375 -375 Israel -237 -237 -237 -237 -237 Italy 0 0 -186 -186 -186 Japan -11 -19 -133 -231 -231 Luxembourg -26 -62 -137 -274 -386 Netherlands 0 0 0 -367 -367 N. Zealand -333 -242 -322 -373 -373 Norway -14 -43 -55 -205 -205 Portugal -54 -54 -101 -127 -152 Spain -201 -201 -201 -201 -201 Sweden -28 -56 -100 -151 -151 UK -385 -385 -385 -385 -385 USA 0 -127 -160 -647 -647

Case 1: One earner employed for 16 hrs per week Case 3: One earner earning half average female earnings Case 5: One earner earning average female earnings Case 6: Two earners average male+half average female Case 7: Two earners average male+average female

The expense of childcare can lessen the financial benefits of working, especially if the financial burden is placed wholly upon the parent(s). Public investment by national, regional or local government is therefore necessary to make a childcare system affordable (OECD, 2001e). Countries may use one or more of four mechanisms for subsidising the market costs of childcare:

• They may subsidise the childcare itself so that charges are below market costs to all parents. We see in Table 5.4 that many countries provide help of this kind. The countries that do not include Canada, Ireland, Israel, Spain and the UK. An indication of the value of these indirect subsidies per full-time place can be seen in the final column of Table 5.4. This is the gross amount that a two-earner couple has to pay per month for a full-time childcare place.

86

• They may reduce or rebate charges for childcare according to the income, family type, age or number of children in childcare. There are charges for childcare for children of 2 years and 11 months in couple families (at these earnings levels) in all countries but in Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal there is some variation with earnings. For lone parents most countries provide free or heavily subsidised childcare places. The result of this is that are considerable variations in childcare costs between countries. A lone mother earning half average earnings would be charged £385 per month in the UK and nothing in Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands. A couple both earning average male and average female earnings would pay £647 per month in the USA and £116 per month in Austria. However these are the typical charges not the actual extra costs.

• The extra costs of childcare in some countries is mitigated by higher cash benefits in respect of a child of pre-school age (though this extra benefit may not be intended to contribute to the costs of childcare). Norway, France, Australia and Canada and Japan have increases in income-related cash benefits paid for a pre-school age child compared to a school age child. In Norway there is a very generous income-related benefit for lone parents, which is not paid to couples. This is the Transitional Allowance, but this is not intended as a way of subsidising the cost of childcare. On the contrary, most receivers of the transitional allowance are staying at home, taking care of their children themselves. Moreover, the Transitional Allowance is not exclusively for parents of pre-school children. In Australia, although the benefit is paid to both couples and lone parents, it is only the lower earning groups which qualify. Japan is unusual in that a small benefit is paid to couples with a pre-school child irrespective of earnings.

In Denmark and Norway a non-income-related pre-school subsidy is paid while in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium there is a slight reduction in the non-income-related benefit paid for a pre-school child.

• The final mechanism countries may use for subsidising the market costs of childcare is to offset some or all the costs of childcare against tax payable on income. Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, the UK and the USA all have some kind of tax/benefit in respect of childcare costs (see Table 5.3). In the case of the UK this is the only subsidy that exists. In New Zealand and Norway lone parents with a pre- school child pay more tax than a school-age child but for Norway, this is solely because the lone parent in the matrix has a considerably higher income from the Transitional Allowance.

Table 5.5 presents the combined value of these two latter methods for assisting with childcare costs - cash benefits and/or tax benefit. This is calculated as the difference between the net disposable income after taxes and cash benefits only, of a one child family with a pre-school age child and a school age child.

There is an argument to be had about whether this represents the value of childcare subsidies. The objectives of policy are often not very explicit and in this study we treat the impacts of policy as the objectives of policy. The childcare tax credits that exist in Canada, New Zealand, the UK, France, Luxembourg, and Norway are certainly intended to mitigate the costs of childcare. The fact that some child cash benefit schemes favour the pre-school age children of people in employment has the effect of reducing childcare costs – though admittedly these benefits may be payable whether or not the child uses childcare. The lone parent with a pre-school child in Norway obtains a large subsidy from the Transitional Allowance. Families with pre-school children in Canada and France also receive a substantial subsidy for a pre-school child. However (apart from Norway) the largest subsidies are the childcare tax credit paid in the UK for the lone parent with low earnings and in Canada, France and Germany for the very low-earning lone parent.

87 Table 5.5

**Extra* value of tax benefits and cash benefits for a pre-**

school child in childcare. Most prevalent type of childcare in

each country. £ ppp per month

Lone parent with one child aged <3 Couple with one child aged <3

Country Case1 Case 3 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7

Australia 36 34 36 0 0 Austria -70 -70 -70 0 0 Belgium -9 33 53 59 60 Canada 60 99 46 87 93 Denmark 22 22 22 22 22 Finland 0 0 0 0 0 France 39 90 106 65 32 Germany 79 -27 -27 0 0 Greece 0 0 0 0 0 Ireland 0 0 0 0 0 Israel 0 0 0 0 0 Italy 0 0 8 8 8 Japan 0 0 0 0 0 Luxembourg -10 -10 7 38 54 Netherlands -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 N. Zealand -28 11 11 11 11 Norway** 441 238 72 74 75 Portugal 0 0 0 0 0 Spain 0 0 3 1 3 Sweden 19 0 0 0 0 UK 270 269 227 0 0 USA 29 0 0 0 0

* A positive sum indicates that a pre-school age child gets more than a school-age child and a negative sum that they get less.

** Norway: This benefit is not only for a pre-school child in childcare, but for all single parents without income the first years they are alone

Table 5.6 then adjusts the childcare costs given in Table 5.4 by the tax and cash benefit subsidies in Table 5.5 to give a net cost of childcare. The main results of this are to make childcare costs a positive sum in Norway for the lone parent family and in Denmark, Germany and the USA for the very poor lone parent family. Only Ireland, Israel25_{and Spain have no help towards the costs of pre-school} children. A number of countries even have subsidies for the better off couple families including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand and Norway.

25 _{Whilst subsidies do exist in Israel for working mothers, lone mothers and new immigrant families, these}

have not been included in the matrix because funding is limited to a few cases each year and therefore very few parents can actually make advantage of these subsidies.

88 Table 5.6

Net costs of full-time childcare. Most prevalent type of

childcare in each country. After direct and indirect subsidies

and after taxes and benefits. £ ppp per month

Lone parent with one child aged <3 Couple with one child aged <3

Country Case1 Case 3 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7

Australia -54 -55 -89 -300 -340 Austria -107 -107 -142 -116 -116 Belgium -33 -68 -83 -128 -147 Canada -264 -226 -278 -237 -232 Denmark 22 -8 -61 -145 -145 Finland 0 0 -75 -119 -119 France -102 -50 -35 -121 -154 Germany 79 -27 -252 -225 -225 Greece 0 0 -192 -192 -192 Ireland -375 -375 -375 -375 -375 Israel -237 -237 -237 -237 -237 Italy 0 0 -178 -178 -178 Japan -11 -19 -133 -231 -231 Luxembourg -35 -71 -129 -236 -332 Netherlands -8 -8 -8 -375 -375 New Zealand -361 -230 -311 -361 -361 Norway 428 196 17 -131 -131 Portugal -54 -54 -101 -127 -152 Spain -201 -201 -199 -200 -199 Sweden -9 -56 -100 -151 -151 UK -116 -116 -158 -385 -385 USA 29 -127 -160 -647 -647

In document Calidad y seguridad de las instalaciones y el material deportivo,en los Centros de Educación Secundaria y Bachillerato de la provincia de Málaga (página 56-62)