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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their amendments, which raise several important points about how we intend to support people with formal childcare costs in universal credit. I will, however, keep to the specifics and not make general comments about employment and growth strategies. I am sure that we will have other opportunities to discuss that and I do not think noble Lords want to hear it from me. I am pleased that noble Lords welcomed the statement made last week by the Secretary of State, Iain Duncan Smith, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, on childcare. We had already committed to allocating the same amount of money to childcare support as is provided by the current system. The spending envelope for childcare and universal credit was ring-fenced at £2 billion, which is the forecast spend for the current system in 2014-15. However, we have now made £300 million more funding available for childcare in universal credit, given that we know how important childcare is in helping parents to work. My noble friend Lord Kirkwood asked where this money came from and whether I could do a line by line. I regret that I cannot do a line by line; that is not how it works. We had an envelope and there were a huge number of changes in assumptions. On the first big reworking of the figures there was money available. That was the amount and we took the political decision that this was the best place to use it. I know, from discussing other issues around this Table, that people want a bit of money for this, a bit for that and a bit for the other. We took the decision that this was the best place to use this extra money. In response to my noble friend Lady Tyler, who I congratulate on her first amendment, working families will be able to recover 70 per cent of monthly childcare costs up to £760 for one child or £1,300 for two or more children, which is equivalent to the current arrangements in tax credits of £175 for one child and £300 for two or more children per week. It will support our aim of ensuring that work will pay for all families.