All parents in a household must work at least 16 hours a week at minimum wage to qualify for the scheme, to avoid parents not in work still claiming the benefit. The Chancellor said the funding will start from the moment maternity and paternity leave ends. Jeremy Hunt announced today that the scheme would be extended to all children over the age of nine months and up to the age of five.

Under the current system, eligible parents of three and four-year-olds are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare each week, for 38 weeks a year. The announcement comes after years of warnings from campaigners, charities and providers that parents – mainly mothers – were being forced out of the workforce by a chronic shortage of affordable childcare. Mr Hunt said: “Because it is such a large reform, we will introduce it in stages to ensure there is enough supply in the market.” A further 640,000 parents of children aged between nine months and two years will need to wait until September 2024 for the same benefit.įamilies will need to wait more than two years, until September 2025, before they can access the promised 30 hours of free care for all children aged under five. Parents of two-year-olds will be able to access a reduced 15 hours of free childcare a week from April 2024, which the Government estimates will help 285,000 families. However, some parents were left disappointed as the new package will be phased in, meaning many will not benefit from the policy. The Chancellor said the average family with a toddler would have their childcare costs cut by 60pc. The new rules are expected to save parents with a two-year-old in care for 35 hours a week an average of £6,500 a year, at a cost of more than £4bn to the Government. Working families of children aged under five in England will be entitled to 30 hours of free childcare a week, after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt extended a scheme which currently only applies to parents with three and four-year-olds. Millions of new parents will receive help with spiralling childcare costs under a multi-million pound package, but today’s toddlers will miss out. Working parents could be entitled to up to 30 hours a week, free Free childcare: Who is eligible for it and when does it start?

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