Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of patients whose youngest child is under (a) seven, (b) eight, (c) nine, (d) 10, (e) 11 and (f) 12 years old who will be eligible for tax-free childcare when that scheme is open to parents of children in those age groups.

I refer the honourable member to my response to my response to a Parliamentary Question (106916) on 16 October, which gives the number of live Tax-Free Childcare accounts.

The table below shows the estimated number of families with a youngest child aged under 7, 8, 9, and 10-11 who will be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare in 2018/19. However, not all of these families will use formal childcare or will be better off on Tax-Free Childcare and take-up is therefore expected to be lower.

On 15 November the government announced that Tax-Free childcare will be fully rolled out to all eligible parents by the end of March 2018.

Eligibility projections for Tax-Free Childcare cannot be broken down by Local Authority.