Legislation to help working families with childcare costs to receive second reading
The Childcare Payments Bill aims to help working families with support of up to £2,000 per year for each child.
The Childcare Payments Bill legislation will be given its second reading in the House of Commons today (Monday 14 July).
The debate will be opened by Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Women Nicky Morgan, and closed by Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrea Leadsom.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Women, Nicky Morgan, said:
Today will be the first time that Tax Free Childcare will be debated in Parliament, and the next step in bringing forward this important scheme.
Tax Free Childcare will give parents the opportunity to return to work, should they choose to, and offer childcare support to groups of people that previously didn’t qualify, such as the self employed, and those that work for smaller firms.
The bill aims to help working families with support of up to £2,000 per year for each child. This will build on the £5 billion per year that the government already spends on early education and childcare, and will provide up to 1.9 million working families with 20% of their childcare costs.
This is available to working families where all parents in a household are in work and earn less than £150,000 a year, and do not receive support through Tax Credits or Universal Credit.
The scheme will be available from autumn 2015, and cover children up to the ages of 12, as well as disabled children up to the age of 17.
For the first time, the scheme is available to parents who are self employed, and to those who work for smaller firms that did not previously offer Employer-Supported Childcare.
Find out more about the Tax-Free Childcare scheme.