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 impact of childcare costs on people in receipt of Universal Credit.

We understand that providing financial support with childcare costs to help parents back into work is crucial. That is why we will be significantly increasing the Universal Credit childcare element caps from £646.35 to £950.92 for one child and from £1,108.04 to £1,630.15 for two or more children.

We also acknowledge that, for some parents, a key barrier when moving into work, or moving from part-time to full-time work, can be finding the money to pay their childcare costs in advance. To help eliminate this barrier, UC claimants who are eligible to receive a Flexible Support Fund payment for relevant childcare will be able to claim up to 85% of this payment, as if they had paid it themselves. This will ease the household into the childcare costs payment cycle, enabling parents to pay their next set of childcare costs much more easily.

Further information on the costs associated with the policy to pay Universal Credit childcare support upfront for parents moving into work was published in the Spring Budget 2023: Policy Costings document, Chapter 2, page 8. It can be found here.