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<p>On 24 November we will open the childcare service to those parents whose youngest
child is under 6. We will gradually open the service to the remaining parents at the
beginning of 2018. Our final decisions on roll-out dates for particular age groups
will depend on volumes of applications and the performance of the childcare service.
This is to ensure parents receive a better experience and prompt eligibility responses.
All eligible parents will be able to apply by the end of March 2018.</p><p> </p><p>We
are currently planning our communications campaign, in line with the revised profile
for rollout of the service. Our plans include making use of stakeholders, partner
websites, government channels and press, as well as some paid for advertising. Our
approach is flexible and the costs of the campaign will be dependent on the relative
impact of the various types of media.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC, and their delivery partner
NS&I, have made a number of technical fixes to the childcare service. The impact
of these has been to provide a better customer experience, reduce the number of error
screens seen by parents and provide faster eligibility responses. Almost all parents
now get an eligibility response within five working days and most get their decision
instantly.</p><p> </p><p>The costs for these technical improvements are included in
the overall forecast expenditure for the programme, given in the response to Parliamentary
Question (105727) on 16 October.</p><p> </p><p>As set out in the Impact Assessment
for Tax Free Childcare published in March 2017, we estimate that, when fully rolled
out, 1.2 million families will be better off under the new scheme. This assessment
can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652939/Tax-free_childcare_Impact_Assessment-March_2017.pdf"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652939/Tax-free_childcare_Impact_Assessment-March_2017.pdf</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>The number of live Tax-Free Childcare accounts was given in my response to
a Parliamentary Question (106916) on 16 October.</p><p> </p><p>The number of parents
with a Tax-Free Childcare account is currently lower than expected due to a combination
of us opening the service to parents more slowly, and initial take-up being slower
than expected. The service is currently open to parents of younger children who tend
to focus more on using 30 hours free childcare over Tax-Free Childcare.</p><p> </p>
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