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£1,200 childcare cost pledge

Families are to receive up to £1,200 a year towards childcare costs from 2015. The pledge will reportedly only apply to families in which both parents work and earn less than £150,000 a year. The Budget will be announced on Wednesday.

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Some families 'worse off' under new childcare funding

The Government's £1,200 childcare cost pledge will benefit many working families but leave others worse off, a leading think tank has claimed.

Harriet Waldegrave, education research fellow at Policy Exchange, said low income working families would see their childcare costs halved by the new measure.

This will be a huge help to those on the tightest budgets, and may free them up to choose care based on what they think is best for their child rather than what is cheapest.

There will, however, be some losers. A family with two working parents and one child will be worse off. If only one parent works, the family will not be able to get any support (unlike at present where the working parent can get vouchers), so it will be important to consider what this means for those families, for example, where one parent is in further education or training.

– Harriet Waldegrave

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