Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 7 February 2018, HLWS446, on Schools and Early Years Update, whether any of the poorest families will no longer be eligible for the disadvantaged two-year-olds' early education entitlement under the proposals set out.

Subject to parliamentary procedure, from 1 April 2018 a new net earned income threshold of £15,400 will come into force for families on Universal Credit. A typical family earning around this threshold, depending on their exact circumstances, would have a total annual household income of between £24,000 and £32,000, once benefits are taken into account. The two-year-old entitlement lasts for a year and once children have taken it up, they do not lose it, even if their family circumstances change. This means no two-year-old who has started his or her entitlement would lose it because of this change.