Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Government's criteria for parents in full time higher education to access childcare grants is the same as the criteria set out by Student Finance England.

Eligibility criteria for the childcare grant (CCG) are set out here: https://www.gov.uk/childcare-grant/eligibility. Student Finance England administers the grant in accordance with the regulations on behalf of the government. CCG pays 85% of the actual cost of registered or approved childcare throughout the academic year, during term time, short vacations and the longest vacation.

Students who are potentially eligible for CCG are single parents who are students, student couples with children and student parents with a partner on a low income.

CCG is available in respect of an academic year in which the student incurs prescribed childcare charges for:

• a dependent child who is under the age of 15 immediately before the beginning of the academic year, or
• a dependent child who has special educational needs within the meaning of section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and is under the age of 17 immediately before the beginning of the academic year.