The Government clearly recognises that high childcare costs can affect parents\u2019 decisions to take up paid work or increase their working hours which is why the changes to the UC childcare element announced in the Spring Budget 2023 will provide generous additional financial support to parents moving into work and/or increasing their working hours.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Department will address the issue of \u2018upfront\u2019 childcare costs by exempting any Flexible Support Fund (FSF) payment for upfront childcare costs made to childcare providers from the UC childcare cost calculation when parents move into work or significantly increase their working hours. In practice, this means that the parent will be reimbursed for up to 85% of that FSF payment, as if they had paid it themselves. This provides parents with a significant payment of childcare costs, upfront, to use for their next set of childcare costs, thereby easing UC claimants into the UC childcare costs payment cycle.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Department will also increase the generosity of the UC childcare costs \u2018caps\u2019 (maximum amounts) - Allowing parents to claim back over £300 more for one child or over £500 for two or more children of their childcare costs per month. This will increase the caps from £646.35 for one child and £1,108.04 for two or more children to £950.92 and £1,630.15 respectively.<\/p>
<\/p>
By September 2025, eligible working parents of children aged 9 months to when they start school will be able to get 30 hours of free childcare in England.<\/p>
<\/strong><\/p> As set out in the Spring Budget, and the health is everyone\u2019s business consultation response, increasing access to quality occupational health (OH) services can support disabled people and people with health conditions to remain in and thrive in work. This can contribute to reducing health-related inactivity.<\/p> <\/p> To increase access to OH the government is delivering a range of actions including: proposals to consult on tax incentives to encourage greater take-up of OH and new ways to boost OH coverage; an expanded trial of a subsidy for SMEs and the Self Employed to purchase OH services; a £1m fund to stimulate innovation in the OH market focussed on new models of service delivery and better use of technology; and plans to develop the multidisciplinary OH workforce needed to deliver services.<\/p>"}
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