Increase in childcare hours will not boost the amount of mother working
A recent study suggests that by increasing the number of free hours to 30 hours this will only result in 12,00o more mothers working. The plan to double the amount of free childcare from 15hrs to 30hours will only result in see a slight increase in parents working.
The aim of doubling the free childcare entitlement is to help parents return to work or increase their working hours, however, researchers from Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Essex and Warwick universities found that this would only result in a small percentage of mothers, not fathers going into paid work. Mothers with no younger children would increase from 58% t0 61.5%.
With many parents already using childcare, the increase in hours will only be replaced by used hours. This will then mean parents would need to look for help elsewhere, e.g., grandparents.
With the government planning on spending around £1bn on extending the free childcare, research suggests that this will only see a slight increase in mothers working.
The increase in hours which is being piloted in certain areas was implemented to help parents save around £2500 a year.
With Government planning on spending £6bn by 2020, what do you feel this money should be spent on?