Tax-free Childcare

7. If he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of increasing the tax-free childcare allowance on the ability of parents to work.

Tax-free childcare provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. In addition to tax-free childcare, the Chancellor announced at the spring Budget that all eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year, from when their child is nine months old until they start school.

I thank the Minister for his response. When will the Government start to reward the working families of this United Kingdom? We have a Chancellor who is giving tax breaks to the wealthy to top up their pension pots, yet he cannot support working families by increasing the personal allowance or by offering tax-free childcare that supports all families with childcare needs, particularly families with older children. The high-income child benefit charge remains untouched, leaving households that earn much less than others unaffected. Can the Chancellor update us on his plans to reform this deeply unfair practice?

I do not accept the overall characterisation that the hon. Lady has given. Just in November last year, 428,000 families and 511,000 children benefited from tax-free childcare. The announcements last week will make a significant contribution, and of course that work will start immediately, with the Department for Education consultation. We have a commitment of £204 million for the coming financial year, and £288 million for the following year, to increase supply so that we can deliver this as quickly as possible.

I congratulate the Treasury team on the excellent new policy of providing much more childcare support to families. Will my right hon. Friend persuade the Chancellor to meet me and a small group of colleagues to talk about the policy in the round and about how we can give more support to all families, providing more flexibility where informal childcare is provided—for example, by grandparents—and ensuring that families who want to look after their children at home are not, in effect, left out and left in poverty as a result of the decisions they make for their family?

I thank my right hon. Friend for her question, and I welcomed the chance to discuss this matter at length with her recently. The Chancellor has indicated that he would be happy to meet her, and I would also be happy to meet her again.