Last night the House of Commons passed the Childcare Payments Bill which will now go to the House of Lords for scrutiny. The purpose of the Bill is to helping working families with their childcare costs. The Government will contribute 20% towards working families’ childcare costs up to a total of £10,000 childcare costs per year per child.

This scheme will be available from the autumn of next year and will be available to working families where all parents in a household are in work and earn less than £150,000 a year and do not already receive support through Tax Credits or Universal Credit. For the first time government support for childcare will be available to parents who are self-employed.