Times are tough for people on low to middle incomes. As a group they have seen their quality of life remain stagnate even during times of sustained economic growth. The financial crisis of 2008 and ensuing recession has made getting by much more difficult for large numbers of people who are unable to make ends meet and with no savings to fall back on when the money runs out.

Which is why I was delighted when I was asked to chair the Lib Dem Working group on a Balanced Working Life. Our remit is to develop policy which directly helps those people with caring responsibilities who are struggling to get by on a daily basis. We are asked to develop policies which will allow them to feel they have choices to get the right balance in their lives. We are very conscious that some families are finding themselves caring for both children/grandchildren and elderly relatives at the same time as working – often called the “squeezed generation”.

As you have no doubt noticed – this is a pretty wide remit, which is why we want to give you a chance to tell us what you think.

We are structuring our work into 5 main themes as below, and would welcome your thoughts on any of the following:

• Household budgets
  How can we help people to make their money go further – we are particularly conscious of the rising costs of food, fuel, transport and housing. What is the role of government and others? How can money advice websites and consumer groups help?
• Childcare
  How can we ensure that childcare is available, affordable, of proper quality and sufficiently flexible to fit around people’s jobs and lives? What is the role of employers here including small and medium sized businesses? Are there lessons to be learnt from abroad?
• Work life balance and workplaces that are fair for all
  We want to see flexible working practices available to all, particularly those on low income. At the moment the take up of flexible working is concentrated on people with higher levels of income and more qualified jobs. How can we make it more widespread during a time of increasing job insecurity? How can we balance employment rights in this area with employer needs and encourage more employers to offer realistic flexible working. How does this link in with wider wellbeing in the workplace so that employees feel engaged, valued and happy in their work.
• Family Friendly Public Services
  People on low to middle incomes often rely on various public services but these services are often not geared around their needs or the hours when people want to access them. What can we do to improve the accessibility of services for people who are already juggling working and caring responsibilities, particularly people who have no flexibility in their working hours? What role does public transport have to play here?
• Empowering People to lead more fulfilling lives
  Whilst for many people working and caring for others fills up much of their available time, we want everyone to feel that they have access to wider activities such as leisure activities, culture, sport, volunteering and wider community life. How can we ensure these choices and opportunities are available to people on low to middle income?

I think this is classic Lib Dem territory that touches directly the reality of many people’s daily lives. We need to come up with a distinctive Liberal Democrat approach which recognises how tough life is for so many of our fellow citizens and does something about it. All ideas welcome – add yours in the comments thread below.

* Claire Tyler, Baroness Tyler of Enfield, has been in the House of Lords since 2011, taking an active role in the areas of health and social care, welfare reform, social mobility, well-being, children and family policy, machinery of government and the voluntary sector. She is the Liberal Democrat member of the Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility, and co-chair of the APPG on Social Mobility