Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the requirement to pay childcare costs in advance prior to reimbursement through Universal Credit on levels of employment; and what steps she is taking to support affected families.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, in their Spring 2023 and October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, published their economic impacts of various policy measures, including childcare. These can be found here: The economic effects of policy measures - Office for Budget Responsibility, Monitoring and evaluating the supply-side effects of policy measures - Office for Budget Responsibility.

Parents who need help with their upfront childcare costs to move into work or increase their working hours may be eligible for support from the Flexible Support Fund.

The Flexible Support Fund’s Upfront Childcare Costs can be used to pay 100% of the upfront costs of up to one month of childcare. This is designed to ensure that any costs that the Universal Credit customer incurs in relation to childcare when starting work or increasing their hours is not a barrier to taking up this work.

We are streamlining the process and extending eligibility to parents returning from parental leave to improve access to upfront childcare support. We will also extend eligibility to parents returning from parental leave to ease the difficult transition back to work.