Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of disadvantaged children are eligible for 30 hours of free childcare.

Eligibility for the 30 hours entitlement is based on parental income. It is available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns the equivalent of a weekly minimum of 16 hours at national minimum wage or national living wage, and less than £100,000 per year. This also includes self-employed parents and parents on zero-hour contracts.

The government has made provisions to ensure that parents in certain circumstances will be regarded as being in work. This includes couple families where one parent is in receipt of benefits relating to caring responsibilities or their disability.

Full details on the eligibility criteria are set out in the regulations, which can be found here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/1257/contents/made.