Government introduces Bill to help working families with childcare costs
5 Jun 2014 03:47 PM
The government has introduced the Childcare Payments
Bill.
Today (5 June 2014) the government has introduced the Childcare
Payments Bill, which aims to help working families by giving basic rate tax
relief on childcare of up to £2,000 per year for each child.
The Bill would build on the £5 billion per year the government already
spends on early education and childcare and provide 1.9 million working
families with 20% of their childcare costs.
The scheme would be available from autumn 2015, and cover children up to the
age of 12, as well as disabled children up to the age of 17. The scheme would
be 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. For the first time, government support for
childcare would be available to parents who are self employed, and to those who
work for smaller firms that did not previously offer Employer-Supported
Childcare.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for Women, Nicky Morgan,
said,
Today marks the first step in bringing forward Tax-Free
Childcare. This will provide support for up to 1.9 million hard working
families.
As a working mother, I understand how difficult the choices are that working
parents have to make. Nearly a quarter of employed mothers would increase their
hours if they could arrange convenient, and affordable childcare, and this
scheme will give parents the opportunity to return to work, should they choose
to do so.