Childcare
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Welfare

Childcare Tax Credit Survey

A new survey of over 2,000 working mothers has revealed that over half will be forced to stop work or significantly reduce their working hours, as a result of cuts in the level of support for childcare costs, due to start this April. The survey was carried out by Netmums, in partnership with the Resolution Foundation.

Key findings

Despite the fact that the Government assumed that no parents would change their working routine in response to cuts to the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit, the research found that:

  • more than two-thirds of parents (68 per cent) said they will have to make significant adjustments to their childcare arrangements in response to the changes
  • over one in five (22 per cent) working mothers will have to give up their jobs in order to cover the increased childcare costs
  • over a quarter of mothers (29 per cent) will reduce their working hours in order to cope with childcare costs
  • 27 per cent will have to rely more on informal care from family and friends to cover the shortfall

Further reading

In credit?
Assessing where Universal Credit’s long roll-out has left the benefit system and the country
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Alex Clegg
Happy new tax year
Six big changes to pay, tax and benefit policy – and how they affect households across Britain
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Torsten Bell, Adam Corlett, Alex Clegg
Pensioner progress
The impact of personal tax and benefit changes since 2010 on pensioner families
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Mike Brewer, Alex Clegg, Lalitha Try