Mario Creatura, Parliamentary Candidate for Croydon Central, has welcomed new figures showing that this term 1,998 children in Croydon are benefiting from the Conservatives’ 30 hours free childcare offer.
The offer saves working families around £5,000 per year per child and has seen 325,000 families benefit across the country in the current school term alone, an 11 per cent increase on the same time last year.
High quality childcare not only helps children get the best start in life, but also supports many parents who want or need to work. Beneficiaries of the scheme have reported improved family finances as well as a better work-life balance.
Alongside introducing and increasing the National Living Wage, and raising the personal allowance, childcare support is one of a number of ways this Government is helping families with the cost of living. Our childcare offer is one way the Conservatives are helping women back into work with record high female employment and a record low gender pay gap.
Commenting, Mario said:
‘Being a working parent is hard, and I know from speaking with families across Croydon that the 30 hours offer is making a difference. More parents are increasing their working hours, able to work more flexibly, and spending less on childcare so they have spare cash to spend on their families.
‘Every parent wants to give their child the best start in life and that’s why it’s great to see parents in Croydon benefitting from the Conservatives’ support for families.’
ENDS
For more information please contact [email protected].
Notes to Editors
- There are now 325,000 children benefitting from a 30 hours places in England. This is an 11 per cent increase on the same time last year meaning more families benefitting from our support for the cost of living (DfE, 30 hours free childcare, England, spring term 2019, 28 March 2019, link).
- Our 30 hours free childcare offer for working parents launched nationally on 1 September 2017. The doubled the former 15 hour entitlement introduced in 2010. It saves families of 3 and 4 year olds roughly £5,000 per year per child and nearly 400, 000 families across the country are eligible (DfE, 8 May 2015, link; DfE, 31 August 2017, link).
- Independent evaluation has demonstrated the benefits of 30 hours free childcare. Independent evaluation of pilot sites found that access to 30 hours of free childcare improved family finances, supported a better work-life balance and enabled parents to extend their working hours, should they wish to do so (DfE, 31 August 2017, link).
- We have almost doubled the number of parents benefitting from tax-free childcare from 210,000 in March last year so that more parents. This means more parents claiming £2,000 per child per year, to pay for regulated holiday clubs during the school holidays (Hansard, 29 March 2018, HCWS616, link; BBC News, 18 February 2019, link).
- We are making Tax-Free Childcare fairer and available to around 1 million more families than used the old scheme designed by Labour. We’re going further by encouraging families to take up the offer through a national marketing campaign (Hansard, 29 March 2018, HCWS616, link).
- Spending £6 billion to help parents with the cost of childcare this year- more than ever before. On top of the support we are giving to working parents for childcare, the national living wage is going up by 4.9 per cent in April, so those in full-time employment will take home £2,750 more than they did in 2016 (Hansard, 16 January 2019, Vol. 652 Col. 399WH, link).
- Spending 3.8 per cent of our GDP on family benefits, more than any other OECD country. Family benefits include cash benefits, such as person tax credits, Child Benefit; maternity benefits and child Disability Living Allowance; and benefits in kind covering child care and social services (Hansard, 20 December 2018, Vol. 651 Col. 983, link).
- The female employment rate is at a record high. The female employment rate has reached 71.8 per cent, with more women in work than ever before (DWP, Press Release, 19 March 2019, link; ONS, Female Employment Rate, 19 March 2019, link; ONS, Full-time, part-time and temporary workers, 19 March 2019, link).
- The gender pay gap is at a record low. In April 2018, the full-time gender pay gap (for median earnings) for full-time employees decreased to 8.9 per cent from 9.1 per cent in 2017, and 17.4 per cent when the survey began in 1997 (ONS, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2018, 25 October 2018, link).
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
