Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what analysis the Government has conducted into the effect of the childcare costs element of universal credit on the household income of those who receive that credit.
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The Department updated its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in December 2016. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently assessing the data for UC and will only release information once the necessary quality assurance work has taken place. These statistics will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.
Universal Credit official statistics and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics
The Government recognises that the high costs of childcare can affect many parents’ decisions on returning to and taking up paid work. That is why we increased the level of support for childcare costs within Universal Credit from 70% to 85%. This means that hard working families on Universal Credit can now claim up to 85% of their eligible childcare costs which equates to a maximum support of £646.35 per month for one child and £1108.04 per month for two or more children. This change will benefit up to 500,000 working families once Universal Credit has fully rolled out.
The intention is that more and more families will get more out of the money they earn, and find that it pays to get a job, from taking the first few shifts back at work, right up to working full-time.