What issues will George Osborne tackle in the budget?
It's hard to think of a budget in recent years which has generated as much speculation as today's.
The fact that it is the first Tory fiscal plan free from Lib Dem influence - however effective or otherwise that truly was in coalition - has meant the political pundits have gone full throttle on what might be included.
Changes to inheritance tax, housing benefit, the personal allowance, all manner of potential tax relief and the minimum wage have all been mooted as possibilities but there has been next to no chatter about the crucial issue of childcare costs being looked at further.
More working families than ever are spending a higher and higher proportion of their income on child care than any other household expense, more than accommodation costs, more than transportation costs, more than utility costs.
But this isn't just a problem we face, according to the newly released report in the United States, married couples who both work will spend up to 15 per cent of their income on child care, nationally. If you're a single mother in America the slice of household income reckoned to go on childcare can climb as high as 65% - a crippling and unsustainable figure.
What's more, despite being a nation more than used to saving up for college fees most working parents are paying for childcare as they go.
In Australia the problem is being wrestled with too with the Government recently unveiled a new childcare package which attracted a resounding round of raspberries. The new plan makes parents work at least eight hours a fortnight to qualify for up to 36 hours of childcare subsidy every two weeks. They will also have to work at least 49 hours over the same period to get the full 100 hours per fortnight subsidy.
What is all too often overlooked in this debate wherever it's being had on the planet is the quality of the childcare as well as its cost and availability. The importance of safe and nurturing childcare is well documented, with long-term positive outcomes for children who begin learning in the right environment found in numerous studies.
There's no easy answer, but what's for certain is that globally more and more parents need to work and more and more Governments want them to work.
So let's see if George Osborne has something up his sleeve to help square this circle - if it's not in this particular red box it will need to be in one soon, because the child care issue is rapidly turning into a child care crisis.