U.K. working parents to receive £1,200 childcare boost from 2015

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

U.K. government is set to unveil the new plans regarding childcare vouchers that will enable the working parents to receive 20 percent of childcare costs up to a limit of £1,200 per child annually from autumn 2015 onwards, after the next general elections.

The families where both parents used to work – or one parent in the case of single parent families, will get the benefit from the new scheme under the condition that each parent earns less than £150,000 a year. Parents on a joint income of £300,000 will still be eligible to claim the costs.

It will be funded by £750m made available from the budget, and will replace the existing employer-supported childcare programme (ESC), claimed by 450,000 families.

Eligible families will get the rebate on total annual costs of £6,000, the average costs calculated by the government for a childcare place. Parents will be provided help with the costs of each child up to five years old. The scheme is expected to include all children under 12 by 2020.

Prime minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime minister Nick Clegg will jointly announce the new scheme on the eve of the budget on Tuesday, with the aim of enabling the working parents to receive profit for work.

However, the Labour party is of the opinion that the proposed scheme would not allow the families to benefit for another two and a half years due to the budget cuts they are facing.

According to a recent report into chilcare costs, it has been found that the nursery fees cost has almost doubled in the last decade, costing families an average of £11,000.

The latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found that British families spend an average of 26.6 percent of their income on childcare – the second highest proportion in the world.

Article viewed on Oye! Times at www.oyetimes.com.