Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he will take steps to ensure that parents on zero-hours contracts have access to the full 30 hours per week of free childcare.

In order to qualify for the 30 hours free childcare entitlements, parents need to be earning the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage. This ensures that self-employed parents or parents on zero-hour contracts are not excluded if they meet this income requirement.

Every three months, parents need to reconfirm their eligibility to confirm that over the next three months, they expect to earn at least £1,976, or the National Living Wage for people over 23. If they have a partner, they will need to expect to earn at least this much too.