Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the cost of childcare on rent arrears and household debt on families with children in Birmingham.

The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken action to support families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23 to help.

Whilst three quarters of private renters find no difficulties in keeping up with their rent, we understand that affordability may be an issue for some. Individuals who are unable to afford their rental payments may be eligible for a range of support through the Universal Credit system. In April 2020 we boosted investment in local housing allowance by nearly £1 billion and have maintained local housing allowance rates at their increased level in cash terms in 2021/22 and 2022/23.

For those most in need, Discretionary Housing Payments are available to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the Housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. From April, the Government is also providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials through the Household Support Fund. This brings the total funding for this support to £1 billion.

Since 2017 the Government has doubled free childcare for eligible working parents of 3-4 year olds, from 15 to 30 hours per week, worth over £6,000 per child per year. We have introduced 15 hours of free childcare a week for 2 year olds from disadvantaged families.

We have also introduced tax-free childcare for children aged 0-11, providing working parents up to £2,000 of childcare support a year (or up to £4,000 per year for disabled children aged 0-16).

Eligible Universal Credit claimants can also claim back up to 85% of their registered childcare costs each month regardless of the number of hours they work, compared to 70% in Tax Credits. For families with two children, this could be worth up to £13,000 a year. The Universal Credit childcare element can be used to top up a claimant’s eligible free childcare hours if more hours are worked and childcare required. This offer means that for some claimants’ childcare costs should not present any barriers to entering work.