In today’s Spending Review 2015 it has been announced that free childcare will only be eligible for parents working over the 16hrs. This is denying parents who work less than 16 hrs the opportunity of claiming 30hrs free childcare. How can this be fair?
Parents who are finding it difficult to get full time work or who are saving on childcare costs by working part time hours are going to suffer from this decision made today.
When making this decision where children at the heart of this decision? As they are the ones who are going to suffer, especially as children’s early education is beneficial to their learning and development.
The decision was announced by the Chancellor George Osborne who stated “People working less than 16hrs a week will no longer be entitled to 30hrs free childcare”
However the original pledge by the Tories said all parents of 3 to 4 years old would be eligible, this is now not the case.
The 30hrs free childcare has been pushed back to 2017 as nurseries have raised their concerns over the lack of funding costs.
Not only families working less than 16hrs but families with an income of more than £100,000 will also not be able to claim the free childcare