Ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has vowed to help reduce the cost of childcare.
By reducing the cost of childcare, the government aims to encourage more people into the workforce by helping them to break down the “barriers.”
However, Hunt has also said that the room for tax cuts are limited due to public finances.
Speaking ahead of the Budget, the chancellor said: “For many people, there are barriers preventing them from moving into work – lack of skills, a disability or health condition, or having been out of the jobs market for an extended period of time.
“I want this back-to-work Budget to break down these barriers and help people find jobs that are right for them.
“We need to plug the skills gaps and give people the qualifications, support and incentives they need to get into work.”
What childcare plans have already been announced?
It was announced that parents claiming universal credit are to get more help from the government.
Currently, government support has not kept up with the rising cost of care. For several years, it has been frozen at £646-a-month per child.
Whilst the exact figure has not been announced yet, it is expected that the maximum amount people can claim for childcare on universal credit will rise by several hundred pounds.
Commenting on those parents claiming universal credit, Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, says:
“The Government is right to focus on supporting those on Universal Credit with childcare costs to encourage people into work. Work Foundation research has shown working mothers with young children are 2.7 times more likely than fathers to experience severely insecure work – in large part due to the constraints they face when it comes to unaffordable or unavailable childcare provisions.
“But there is no case to introduce yet further punitive sanctions into the welfare system which will be both costly and inefficient for workers and businesses alike and is guaranteed to increase anxiety for some of the most vulnerable households in the country. Instead, the Government should prioritise cancelling the Energy Price Guarantee to provide further support for low-income households.”
Lorna Crowley, CMO at Winningtemp, commented:
“Ongoing calls for childcare reform are absolutely necessary to improve gender equality and help navigate current workforce shortages, contributing to boost the economy. Findings from PwC’s Women in Work Index show how the childcare affordability crisis and low take-up by fathers of shared parental leave is negatively impacting gender inequality at work, with a growing number of mothers choosing part-time jobs or early retirements.
The UK should look for inspiration from the Nordic countries, where the childcare model is world-leading and the gender gap is less pronounced. In the Nordics, childcare arrangements are among the most generous in the world, supporting parents from the early days of pregnancy to school and beyond. This has massive benefits, and on average across the Nordic countries, almost three in four women are in paid employment, gender employment gaps are among the OECD’s smallest, and mothers are more likely to be in work than in other countries. This is thanks to affordable childcare and the right to paid parental leave and employment protection – two things that the UK could and should learn from.
The UK should look at adopting the Nordic model to childcare sooner rather than later.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
