Childcare: Finance
(asked on 8th September 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were ineligible for government-funded childcare in 2023/4, 2024/5 and 2025/6 as a result of the £100,000 earnings limit; and what her Department's estimate is of the value of funded childcare unavailable to those families.
The £100,000 adjusted net income per year threshold applies to the working-parent entitlement and Tax-Free Childcare, rather than to all forms of government childcare support. Children aged three-and-four years old who were ineligible for the working parent entitlement due to the £100,000 threshold would have still been able to access 15 hours of childcare support through the 15-hour universal childcare entitlement.
We are able to release estimates of the number of children ineligible for working parent funded childcare entitlements, because of a parent exceeding the £100,000
threshold.
Year (July to following June) | 2019/ 2020 | 2020/ 2021 | 2021/ 2022 | 2022/ 2023 | 2023/ 2024 | 2024/ 2025 | 2025/ 2026 |
Total children (range, rounded to the nearest 100) | 11,800 - 23,400 | 12,300 - 24,300 | 13,800 - 27,100 | 15,500 - 28,900 | 15,600 - 30,800 | 46,400 - 91,300 | 50,500 - 99,000 |
Total value of hours (range, rounded to the nearest million) | £44m - £88m | £46m - £91m | £52m - £101m | £55m - £108m | £58m - £115m | £239-469m | £446m - £874m |
The following caveats should be noted for this analysis:
- Ranges are presented to account for uncertainty around whether or not both parents are working, making the child ineligible for reasons other than just the £100,000 threshold.
- The value of hours are calculated assuming 100% take-up of the eligible population (a phenomenon we do not observe with the working parent entitlement currently), and maximum use of hours available i.e. all 30 hours of the 30 hours offer (a phenomenon we also do not observe currently).
- The Working Parent Entitlement was expanded in September 2024 to cover children aged 9 months to 2 years, hence the sudden increase in ineligible children over that period.