Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the effect on the public purse of childcare costs being excluded from household income for the purposes of calculating entitlement to housing benefit and council tax benefit in each of the last five years.

The information is not available regarding housing benefit. Regarding council tax benefit, since April 2013 responsibility for council tax support has been devolved to local authorities.