Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of families which have claimed the upper limit of the childcare entitlement element of universal credit for whom that support represented less than 85% of their childcare costs since the introduction of that benefit.

Entitlement to Universal Credit is determined by first assessing what a claimant qualifies for, for example, housing costs and caring responsibilities. This can include childcare of up to 85% of eligible costs, up to a limit of £1,108.04 for two or more children.

All relevant qualifying amounts are combined into a gross entitlement figure. Once this gross entitlement has been established, any income and earnings is deducted to produce the net entitlement figure. Income and earnings are deducted from the total entitlement and not a specific element (for example, that representing childcare costs). Therefore it is not possible to provide the calculation requested in the question.