Pay stay-at-home and working parents

IT'S limiting family size, forcing women to quit work and turning grand-parents into unpaid childminders - the first national newspaper poll on childcare shows it has become a major election issue.

Parents rate childcare in the top three issues driving their voting intentions in the next general election.

The findings are remarkable in that working parents struggling to meet childcare costs recognise that stay-at- home parents are equally in need of financial support. In all, 84% of households where both parents work favour a State payment to stay-at-home parents.