Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the proportion of universal credit claimants that are using the childcare element.

The Government recognises that high childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours. To overcome this barrier to employment we increased the level of support for childcare costs within Universal Credit from 70 per cent to 85 per cent.

The available information on the number of households in receipt of the childcare element of Universal Credit is published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

Universal Credit claimants can also benefit from the 15 and 30 hours of free childcare offer, where eligible.