Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 5 December 2017, HCWS309, on Childcare update, what estimate her Department has made of the potential cost increase of that policy announcement.
The Written Ministerial Statement on ‘Childcare update’, of 4 December 2017, said that “This threshold would increase the number of children benefitting – around 8,000 more children taking up this entitlement once Universal Credit is fully rolled out and in steady state”. We estimate that this will cost around £25 million per annum once Universal Credit is fully rolled out.
The Written Ministerial Statement was also clear that no child who had commenced the two-year-old entitlement would lose it as a result of the introduction of the new earnings threshold.