Sheffield nurseries: Hourly childcare costs revealed as Spring Budget vows to ease strain for poorest families

The upcoming Spring Budget has promised extra help for parents on universal credit by lifting how much they can claim to pay daycare fees for children under two.

In 99 per cent of local areas in England, the average price of a full-time nursery place for a toddler is higher than the maximum that can be paid out. In fact, the cap of how much households can claim back for childcare costs –currently £646 for one child – has not lifted since 2005, despite nursery fees more than doubling since then in many parts of the country.

Now, the Government will reportedly raise how much can be claimed by hundreds of pounds, as well as paying the benefit upfront to families. However, the budget is expected to also tie parents in with more obligations to prove they are searching for work.

It comes as the newest figures have revealed the average cost of childcare for children under two in Sheffield.

Families get access to 15 hours a week of free childcare once their little ones reach the age of three, and some can claim up to 30 hours if they are working.

Until then, parents in Sheffield pay an average of £5.31 an hour in nursery or childminder fees. It means the bill for a full-time nursery place (50 hours) a week for a child aged under two amounts to £265.50 in Sheffield, compared to £273.57 in England.

The pitch to raise the funding cap in the upcoming budget reportedly comes as research shows as little as 13 per cent of eligible parents even claim back childcare costs. The most recent figures showed 713,500 parents from a total of 823,600 were not claiming back money they are entitled to.

Louise Gittins, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, called on No 10 to not only raise the cap for childcare costs but to hold a major publicity campaign and inform parents to check if they are missing out.

She said: “The UK has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world, which is impacting many low-income families at a time when the cost of living has rocketed.

“The cap on childcare support for working parents receiving benefits has not changed in almost 20 years, while childcare costs have more than doubled during that time. We feel it would be only fair and right for the cap to be increased in line with inflation in [the] budget.

“It is also worrying that hundreds of thousands of eligible parents are not claiming any childcare support. That may be their choice, or it could be down to difficulties they have accessing the system. This should be urgently looked into to assess whether more parents could be getting the help they desperately need.”

Meanwhile, it is understood Chancellor Jeremy Hunt dismissed an idea for the budget where free childcare would be extended to children aged under three as it would cost about £6bn. The Guardian claims this cost would be met by increasing income tax by “a penny”.