Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Not Addressed
The UC childcare offer is, in some ways, more generous than the system it replaces,...
Recommendation
The UC childcare offer is, in some ways, more generous than the system it replaces, as it offers a higher percentage reimbursement. However, support for childcare for some of the poorest families in the country has failed to keep pace with inflation because the maximum cap of childcare that can be claimed for has stayed at the same level since 2005. This is particularly pertinent given the current rate of inflation and cost of living crisis, which the Government has recognised in uprating benefits, and the benefit cap, in the Autumn Statement. We recommend the Government uprate the childcare cost caps to better reflect the true cost of childcare in 2022 and then index them annually. (Paragraph 60) Understanding support and eligibility
Government Response Summary
The response describes work to promote the use of UC childcare and support Work Coaches understanding rather than uprating the childcare cost caps.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The Department has worked hard internally to promote the use of the UC childcare and the FSF and to ensure that the right guidance is in place to support and develop Work Coaches understanding so they can help claimants better understand the generous UC childcare offer. digestible way and operational staff can access this at any point. The training materials outline UC childcare costs specific scenarios to ensure that Work Coaches are having childcare conversations with claimants at the right time. Work Coaches and Case Managers are encouraged to remind parents to utilise all information available, in particular, the very helpful Childcare Choices website. By having the information online allows all operational staff to signpost claimants online for support—which is important. The rationale why self-employment has ‘Enhanced Capability Work Coaches’ is that it is a particularly complex area of UC to deliver, and supporting self-employed claimants is considered sufficiently different to working with employed claimants that Work Coaches need additional training to be able to do it effectively. In particular, this additional training provides Work Coaches and their team leaders the knowledge and skills they need to assess whether or not a claimant is Gainfully Self-Employed (GSE) for UC purposes, 8 Universal Credit and childcare costs: Government Response support claimants during the start-up period, and signpost them to external provision. Many self-employment Work Coaches have a mixed caseload; it only tends to be the larger Jobcentre sites that have the capacity to allow those working with the self-employed to do so exclusively. The Department does recognise how confusing the childcare landscape can appear. It is for this reason that we have put in place over 30 childcare Champions nationally whose aim is to co-ordinate the promotion of the UC childcare offer and how it fits with other relevant help with childcare for UC families. We have also put in place an established network of upfront childcare Subject Matter Experts within the districts. These are specialists in each district and encourage operational colleagues to ask for assistance if unsure about any aspect of upfront childcare support. We welcome the estimated costs that the Committee provided on having a specialist childcare Work Coach in every Jobcentre. As we have put in place the Childcare Champions and Subject Matter Experts in regions to support Work Coaches in every Jobcentres, we are not considering having Specialist Work Coaches in every Jobcentres in addition to these roles. Therefore, we have not carried out any estimate of costing for this work. Not having Work Coach specialists is in line with the UC model, in which Jobcentres assign claimants a named Work Coach who provide support on a wide range of topics.