Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of two-year-olds in Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency who have parents in receipt of universal credit and are eligible for 15 hours of free childcare.

As of January 2018, the number of families in Cheshire West and Chester who are taking up the free early education entitlement for two year olds was 810. This is a take-up rate of 89%.

Universal Credit (UC) is one of a number of eligibility criteria for the free early education entitlement for two year olds. This criteria also includes receipt of certain benefits, children looked after by a local authority, children who have left care, families in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or children with special educational needs or with an Education, Health and Care Plan.

According to the most recent list of potentially eligible parents provided by the Department for Work and Pensions, 187 families would be eligible based on the Universal Credit Full Service eligibility criteria. This number does not include families on the Universal Credit Live Service as they are not included on the lists. We do not have figures broken down by constituency level.

UC is partially rolled out in Cheshire West and Chester, as it is used by approximately 75% of Job Centres. It will be fully rolled out in July.