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Spring Budget - UC upfront childcare costs
I just want to check that I’ve not missed anything. The Spring Budget announced that parent’s moving into work or increasing their hours will receive support with upfront childcare costs. But this doesn’t mean ongoing childcare costs will be paid upfront does it? So, essentially, its great for a limited number of parents (and also great for headlines), but it won’t help anyone already in work and struggling to meet the upfront costs (if they’re not increasing their hours). And even for those it helps, it’s kicking the can down the road, in the same way it currently does if you get help with upfront costs through the flexible support fund isn’t it? I haven’t really seen any comments about this, but if I’ve understood it correctly, it’s not quite the result it’s being touted to be.
Mel Stride told the Work and Pensions Committee last week -
On your point about childcare and what the Department will be doing, two of the key things that we will be delivering is, first, untying this knot of this up-front first month payment. The Flexible Support Fund will make that payment up front to the provider and that will be reclaimable by the customer at the end of that first month, as if they had made the payment. That will then set them up for the next month’s payment.
Q96 https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12982/html/
So as I understand it the childcare payments in UC will be made as usual but you can get the FSF payment without it affecting your first childcare element as it does now
Currently you cannot have the childcare element included if you have had help from the FSF in that AP - see paragraph on Deposits and upfront fees at https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2022-0860/027._Childcare_costs_V23.0_.pdf
[ Edited: 5 Apr 2023 at 11:01 am by Daphne ]Thanks Daphne, that’s super helpful.
So, it’s great news for anyone moving into work or increasing their hours, but won’t be helpful at all to anyone already in work and struggling with the upfront costs.
Yes that’s my understanding but it’s obviously just from what Mel Stride said and I haven’t seen anything else about it
This from a DWP person at a Dangos webinar last week.
“So the system will be that Flexible Support Funding will be used to pay the upfront childcare costs (as now), the parent claimant will then draw down the funding for those costs (up to new maximum levels) which, along with their wages from their new work, will provide finances to pay for month 2 of the childcare costs, which in-turn will be drawn down as a reimbursement (again up to UC Childcare cost maximum amounts). And so the cycle continues. I hope this helps.”
New regs out today clarify that the upfront costs are claimed from the Flexible Support Fund - presumably that won’t happen automatically - a claimant will have to ask for it. Those payments are then disregarded (unlike now) when calculating the childcare costs element in that assessment period so that money can be used to pay the next month’s childcare.
Unless claimants are aware of what they have to do, they won’t benefit from this change
Thank you Daphne. I feel like I’ve been bleating on about this since the Spring Budget but the media hasn’t reported things accurately. Nobody seems to have paid much attention to the fact that there’ll be lots of UC claimants that won’t benefit from the policy change - in particular those returning to work following maternity leave. Good to finally have the regs and worried that if it’s up to work coach discretion and claimants actually knowing they’re entitled to help with upfront costs, it’s not going to help nearly as many people as hoped.
Yes I agree - I’d be very interested to hear of any cases where people haven’t been advised by work coach to claim fro Flexible Support Fund or even have been refused. I can then collate them and raise via stakeholder forum
Bump!
Do we know if this scheme is working out or was it window dressing?