Universal Credit

(asked on 12th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of universal credit credit claimants whose childcare costs exceed the upper threshold for (a) one child and (b) two or more children.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 24th February 2020

Childcare costs should not be a barrier to getting into work; this Government is committed to helping parents into work. Universal Credit pays up to 85% of childcare costs, compared to 70% in legacy benefits and can be claimed up to a month before starting a job. In cases where people need to pay for childcare upfront, prior to starting work, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to meet these costs until their first wage is received.

For all Universal Credit monthly payments made in 2019, around 520,000 included a childcare element:

a. For childcare costs claimed for one child in childcare, 5% of the time, childcare claims exceeded the maximum award of £646.35 (28,000 times).

b. For childcare costs claimed for two or more children in childcare, 1% of the time, childcare claims exceeded the maximum award of £1108.04 (6,000 times).

Notes:

  • (a) and (b) are exclusive categories and (b) is not a subset of (a)
  • Payment figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.
  • Percentages rounded to the nearest percent.
  • Households are counted each time they have received a childcare element in 2019.
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