Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to find a long-term solution for upfront costs in childcare under universal credit.

The Government recognises that childcare costs can affect parents’ decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours. We are committed to helping parents into work.

To overcome this barrier to employment, Universal Credit claimants are able to claim up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, compared to 70% on the legacy system. This can be claimed up to a month before starting a job, and can be worth up to £13,000 a year for families with two children.

We recognise the difficulty that some claimants might have in paying upfront childcare costs. Where the initial month’s childcare costs may prevent a claimant from starting work, Jobcentres will use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants in the first instance. This is a non-repayable award, which can be used to meet the upfront childcare costs to help support a claimant into work. For claimants who are in work and need help with upfront childcare costs, budgeting advances are available that can be used to cover the cost of paying upfront childcare costs or a deposit.

We have piloted a more flexible approach to claimants reporting childcare costs, which will allow people, including lone parents, to be reimbursed for childcare when, with good reason, they are not able to provide evidence within their assessment period. We are now looking to implement this nationally.

We have undertaken significant work to increase work coach awareness and understanding of the Universal Credit childcare offer through improved training and guidance and communications.

The Universal Credit childcare policy also aligns with the wider government childcare offer, which includes free childcare hours and tax free childcare.