Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average (a) monthly and (b) annual cost of childcare per household was in (i) England and Wales, (ii) London and (iii) each London borough in each year since 2010.

The Government uses a range of information from a number of difference sources to consider the affordability of childcare including:

• Our ‘childcare and early years survey of parents’ (www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2012-to-2013);
• Independent surveys, such as the Family and Childcare Trust Annual Childcare Cost Surveys (www.familyandchildcaretrust.org/childcare-cost-survey-2015); and
• The recent House of Lords Select Committee’s report on affordable childcare – to which we responded on 17 December, 2015 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/affordable-childcare-response-to-the-select-committee-report).

We are committed to supporting hard-working parents with the costs of childcare and to make it more affordable. That is why we will be investing an extra £1billion per annum by 2019-20 to help hardworking families with the cost of childcare.

We are already funding 15 hours a week of free early education for all three- and four-year-olds and for disadvantaged two-year-olds – this saves families around £2,500 per child per year. Through our Childcare Bill we are making plans to fund and deliver an additional 15 hours of free childcare for the working parents of three- and four-year olds from September 2017 (with early implementation in some areas from September 2016) – worth around another £2,500 per child per year. We also continue to invest in the Early Years Pupil Premium.

We are also introducing Tax-Free Childcare from early 2017, under which around 2 million families could benefit by up to £2,000 per child per year or £4,000 per child per year if a child is disabled.

For working parents on low and middle incomes, working tax credit pays up to 70% of their childcare costs and this will increase to 85% under Universal Credit from April 2016. This support will be available, for the first time, to those working fewer than 16 hours per week.