To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the (a) forecast expenditure and (b) actual expenditure for the tax-free childcare scheme in the last three financial years to date.
Answered on
17 September 2020
The forecast expenditure (forecast in March 2017) was £400m in 2017/18, £800m in 2018/19 and £900m in 2019/20. The actual expenditure was £32m in 2017/18, £117m in 2018/19 and £236m in 2019/20. Forecast expenditure has been published by the OBR (https://obr.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-march-2017). Actual expenditure has been published on the gov.uk website (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-june-2020).
The Government recognises that take up of Tax-Free Childcare has been below expectations, particularly for school-aged children. For this reason, at March 2020 Budget we announced a measure that will make TFC payments compatible with school payment agents, allowing up to 500,000 eligible children to access TFC for the first time.