What help is there for childcare costs?

The cost of living crisis is not an easy matter to negotiate in personal life, nor in business. If people have less money to spend, then childcare needs often can’t be met- indeed, there have been many articles and reports by the BBC and other media outlets explaining how parents are now being forced out of work because their wages don’t cover bills due to the cost of childcare!

Some shocking statistics reveal that in some areas of London up to 50% of wages are being spent on childcare, which is not at all viable! Parent simply cannot afford to work if so much of their money is going to have to be spent on childcare, especially not at a time when inflation means that every other bill has increased significantly too!

But what can be done, what has been done?

The government have made some changes to try and bridge the gap between what parents earn and what they have to pay out for childcare. Some of the ways they are attempting to fix the issue of the cost of childcare crisis are:

  • The Tax-free childcare scheme: for every £8 put into the scheme by parents, the government gives £2- up to a maximum of £2000 per child per year. This money can be used for any official/registered childcare setting.
  • Parents aged 20 and under can receive weekly payments from Care to Learn if they’re still in school or sixth form, these payments contribute to the cost of childcare.
  • In England, all three and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours of free childcare per week in term time, or 38 weeks a year. Free hours can be used in some private nurseries or state-run pre-schools.
  • If both parents are working a minimum of 16 hours a week each, these three- and four-year-olds are entitled to 30 hours free childcare, which can be used/claimed in the same way as 15 hours free.
  • Parents and people on universal credit will be able to claim £951 each month for childcare for one child and £1,630 for two, which is a fairly significant increase.
  • Education Secretary Mr Hunt announced that by September 2026 all primary schools should offer wraparound care from 8:00am until 6pm every working day. This means that parents can work for longer, and as we outlined in other blogs, due to the nature of wraparound venues allowing for more children to attend, the cost is spread out more evenly across more people- making it cheaper than some other forms of childcare. (In short, schools must provide wraparound care, which is what we offer!)
  • The government has altered the ratio of children per adults. Some childcare settings for example, are now able to offer a ratio of 1 adult to 8 two-year-olds- though company policies dictate this as well as government guidelines.

 

But is it enough? Only time will tell. Certainly these schemes and changes to childcare do seem as if they could have a real positive impact. We will keep an eye on the cost of childcare developments and provide more blogs on the topic as and when we discover relevant information.