Spring Budget 2017: The government’s tax-free childcare scheme will be rolled out from April 2017.
In his Spring Budget 2017 speech, Chancellor Philip Hammond confirmed that the scheme will be introduced next month and that all eligible parents will be brought into the scheme by the end of the year.
The government’s tax-free childcare policy will provide parents with children under the age of 12 up to £2,000 a year per child to help cover childcare costs.
As previously announced, working families in England with children aged three and four years old will see their entitlement to free childcare increase from 15 to 30 hours a week from September 2017.
Hammond said: “Next month we will see the introduction of our flagship tax-free childcare policy, which will allow working families across the UK to receive up to £2,000 a year towards the cost of childcare for each child under 12. The scheme will be rolled out to all eligible parents by the end of the year.
“And from September, working parents with three and four year olds will get their free childcare entitlement doubled to 30 hours a week. That’s worth around £5,000 a year to a young family with a three year old and both parents working.
“By the end of this parliament, government spending on childcare will have reached £6 billion a year.
“These childcare measures represent a further huge step forward in support for ordinary working families, and for women in the workplace.”