Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the level of fraudulent tax free childcare claims in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
HMRC’s compliance activity for Tax-Free Childcare – which involves targeted risk campaigns plus additional exercises looking at the particulars of randomly selected parents - suggests non-compliance rates continue to remain negligible.
Whilst no formal estimates have been as yet been produced, all of HMRC’s compliance findings to date reveal no real evidence of deliberate fraud, but what mistakes have been detected relate instead to parent error.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial support is available to parents of a child over the age of 11 to help with their childcare costs, given that this is the upper limit for Tax-Free Childcare, and where they are no longer able to access Childcare Vouchers.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
This Government is committed to supporting families and we will be spending almost £6 billion in 2019/20 on childcare support – more than ever before.
There is a range of financial support with the cost of childcare available to parents with children over the age of 11, including:
Support with 20% of childcare costs for disabled children up to the age of 16 under Tax-Free Childcare.
Support of up to 85% of childcare costs under Universal Credit, and up to 70% of costs under Tax Credits, for children up to the age of 16 and 15 respectively.
Support of up to 85% of childcare costs for children under 15 whose parents are full time Higher Education students under the Childcare Grant in England.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support for childcare is available to working parents who have no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
All three and four year olds in England are entitled to the 15 hour universal entitlement to free early education for 38 weeks of the year regardless of the immigration status of the child or their parents.
Parents who have the right to live and work in the UK are eligible for an additional 15 hours a week of free childcare for three and four year old children.
Parents who are from outside the EEA and have no recourse to public funds are not entitled to the additional hours of free childcare for three and four year old children. However, if they have a British partner, an EEA national partner or a non-EEA national who is not subject to immigration control, they can receive the additional free hours of childcare if it is that other partner who makes the application for 30 hours.
Children of families with no recourse to public funds with a right to remain in the UK on grounds of private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and children of Zambrano carers have recently become eligible for the free early education entitlement for the most disadvantaged two year old children in England provided they come within the income threshold.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what forecast he has made of the number of parents that will be eligible for tax free childcare in each of the next five years.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
We estimate that there are 1.3 million families with qualifying childcare that are eligible for Tax-free Childcare in the UK in 2019/20. This estimate has been revised from the 1.5 provided previously following updates to the survey data and methodological improvements.
Current forecasts for the next five years can be seen in the table below.
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Number of Eligible Families with Qualifying Childcare (Millions) | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 |
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the lack of access in Northern Ireland to 30 hours funded childcare on the affordability of childcare in Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the UK.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The provision of funded childcare hours for pre-school children is devolved and is therefore a matter for a restored Northern Ireland Executive.
Parents in Northern Ireland are able to receive support with their childcare costs from UK government support including Universal Credit and Tax-Free Childcare.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many hours of childcare recipients of tax free childcare apply for by the proportion of applicants that apply for those hours.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
This information is not available since hours of childcare used is not collected as part of the Tax-free Childcare application process.Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to increase the affordability of childcare for low income families.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
This Government is committed to supporting families across the income distribution with the cost of childcare and we will be spending almost £6 billion in 2019/20 on childcare support – more than ever before.
Families on low incomes are able to access a range of childcare support including:
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he has taken to support dual income families where both parents work full time hours.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
This Government is committed to supporting families with the cost of childcare and we will be spending almost £6 billion in 2019/20 on childcare support – more than ever before.
Families where both parents work more than 16 hours per week at the National Living Wage and earn less than under £100,000 per year are eligible for a range of support including:
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial support is in place for single working parents.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government is committed to supporting working families with the cost of living.
We are committed to rolling out Universal Credit (UC), which is designed to make work pay. Working parents on UC are benefitting from the Budget 2018 work allowance increase, meaning they can keep up to an extra £635 of their income each year.
The Government is spending almost £6 billion in 2019-20 on childcare support – more than ever before. This includes free childcare hours in England, support under tax credits and Universal Credit, and Tax Free Childcare.
Working parents will also be benefitting from the Income Tax Personal Allowance increase to £12,500, and the National Living Wage increase to £8.21.
Asked by: Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level at which the earnings threshold cap has been set for the eligibility for tax-free childcare.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by my predecessor on 30 April 2019 under UIN’s 245642, 245643, 245644 and 246449.