| answer text |
<p>The Government is committed to helping parents into work and childcare costs should
not be a barrier to this.</p><p> </p><p>Universal Credit pays up to 85% of childcare
costs, compared to 70% in legacy benefits and can be claimed up to a month before
starting a job. In cases where people need to pay for childcare upfront, prior to
starting work, Work Coaches can use the Flexible Support Fund to meet these costs
until their first wage is received.</p><p> </p><p>For the 110,000 Universal Credit
households with at least one childcare element in payment from December 2018 to November
2019 inclusive, 52,000 (47%) have received an advance payment.</p><p> </p><p>The reasons
for advances are not recorded, therefore these could have been utilised for many reasons.</p><p>
</p><p>The Department does not hold a breakdown of its Flexible Support Fund expenditure
for childcare for the last 12 months.</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><ol><ol><li><p>Figures
are rounded to the nearest 1,000.</p></li><li><p>Figures include all types of advances,
including advances paid after the first assessment period.</p></li><li><p>Figures
provided to November 2019 are in line with published statistics relating to households
on Universal Credit.</p></li></ol></ol>
|
|
