Letter: Childcare tax breaks

I AM delighted to see you have started a campaign to help working mothers like myself. I work as a researcher for an MP, and although I love my job, it is actually costing me money to work. Because I work long hours and my son is not yet at school, childcare absorbs all my after- tax income. A small amount of Family Credit is left to cover all my other living costs.

There are many people working in Parliament, who aren't MPs, who are likely to need workplace childcare (report, 19 February), and subsidised childcare at that. There are surveys sent out once in a while to try and determine the demand for a nursery in Parliament. So far they have demonstrated that there is not enough demand to justify a nursery. But surely that's because parents who would need it are not here to be surveyed - because they have difficulty arranging or affording childcare.

EMMA THORPE

Thames Ditton, Surrey