Nursery
In the U.K., the government subsidises the cost of nursery care for children ages 3 and 4 to the tune of 12.5 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year, rising to 15 hours per week in 2010. (There has been official discussion of extending the benefit to 2-year-olds as well.) Parents can also get tax relief on the cost of nursery places via child-care of up to £243 per month from their employers if their employer offers this benefit. Families with low incomes who need to pay for extra nursery time are expected to use child tax credits. Most nursery places are in privately run centres and can be expensive. The weekly cost of a nursery place for children over two years old has jumped by 5% since 2008 to £156, the Daycare Trust found. It also reported that full-time child minders can cost between £135 and £400 in the U.K. A full-time nanny is even more expensive. The Website NannyTax found that the average take-home pay for a nanny working 36 hours a week was £258 to £328. In developing countries around the world, the norm is still for children to be looked after by mothers and members of the extended family. There is no government nursery scheme.
