Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2018 to Question 124788, what the evidential basis is for the Government’s estimation that parents with children under the age of twelve have higher childcare costs than parents with children under the age of fifteen.

The Government announced the closure of the childcare voucher scheme to new entrants at Budget 2016. Therefore, parents of 12 to 15 year olds have either decided not to join the voucher scheme or are unable to join the scheme because they are self-employed or their employer does not offer vouchers. Parents who meet the eligibility requirements will not necessarily have an employer who offers them.

Information on the cost of childcare, by child age, is published by the Department for Education in table 4.7 of the additional tables document of the childcare and early years survey of parents, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2017

The median childcare cost used in the table is the more accurate for comparing childcare costs as it is less affected by statistical outliers than the mean.

The estimate of eligible families for Tax-Free Childcare was derived using Family Resource Survey which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-resources-survey--2. It is not possible break this down by local authority.

Tax-Free Childcare has a wider reach than childcare vouchers. Unlike vouchers which are reliant on whether an employer chooses to offer them, all eligible parents are able to access the Tax-Free Childcare, including the self-employed. Only an estimated 5% of employers offer childcare vouchers.

Data on how many parents intend to, or have stopped using childcare vouchers in order to use Tax-Free childcare is not available.