MP defends policy to pay mums
10:53am Tuesday 20th May 2008
BASINGSTOKE MP Maria Miller has defended herself after a policy idea that attracted her attention was attacked in the national press.
Mrs Miller, the Conservatives' shadow families minister, attended the launch of a document, developed by think-tank Policy Exchange, which suggested mothers be paid to stay at home to look after their young children if they do not want to return to work.
But The Times newspaper columnist Alice Miles was among those criticising the idea of giving all mothers £50 to £60 a week, per child, from birth to three years old.
She claimed that the funding would come from taking grants and tax credits from the poorest mothers to support all mothers - including the rich.
She wrote: "The proposal is immoral and regressive, hurting the poorest children the most - something that Mrs Miller recognises."
But Mrs Miller explained the report did not tell mothers to stay at home, but said there was an inequity in the system for mothers with young children and considered how to address it.
She said: "If you stay at home and don't make use of those tax credits or nurseries, you get nothing at all.
"Why should we underwrite one sort of activity and not another?"
Mrs Miller said many women she talked to found it increasingly difficult to balance work and family life and provide enough money to sustain their families.
"I will look at the proposal from Policy Exchange to see if it can help those women concerned," she said.