Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of households using the childcare element of universal credit who have entered arrears on childcare costs.

The information requested is not held.

The Government recognises that high childcare costs are a barrier which can prevent a parent from making the move into work, or from seeking to increase their earnings.

To help parents to overcome this, the amount of support for childcare costs within Universal Credit was increased to 85 per cent, up from 70 per cent on Legacy benefits, which is worth up to £646.35 per month for those with one child, and up to £1,108.04 per month for those claimants with two or more children. Claimants with a firm or accepted job offer can claim childcare costs a month prior to starting in their new job and from 28 February 2018, claimants have been able to provide evidence of their childcare costs online, through their Universal Credit account. Previously this had to be provided via post or in person.

Additional help to meet an initial payment for childcare costs may also be available to claimants in particularly difficult circumstances through the Flexible Support Fund.

The available information on the number of households in receipt of the childcare cost 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