Great news for families in the Budget after the government announced an extension of the 30 hours of funded childcare scheme for children from 9 months old, building on the current scheme which covers those who are three and four.
This is absolutely HUGE for working families in Bassetlaw and was the number one thing many told me would help them when I served as Children & Families Minister. Having met with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, I am therefore absolutely delighted that we are now in a position to offer this to parents. I always use the term ‘funded’, rather than ‘free’, because this is of course taxpayers’ money. That said, this is exactly the sort of thing people want to see it being spent on.
As a family who have struggled to manage the demands of young children and work, I can empathise with parents who do their very best to make work pay, but are hampered with the costs of childcare. This announcement will put that right and allows many people to go back to work, when previously it would have been very difficult and very expensive.
Parents can also benefit from tax free childcare by setting an account up on the government website. For every £8 you pay into this account, the government will top it up with another £2. You can then use this to pay your childcare provider. You can get up to £500 every three months by doing this – up to £2000 per year.
We understand that families across the country are worried about the cost of energy bills.
That is why the Chancellor has acted decisively to extend the Energy Price Guarantee at the current level of £2,500 for a further three months, saving the typical family £1,500 in total when the Energy Price Guarantee ends in June.
With energy bills set to fall from July, this extension will ease pressure on families while we work to halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt.
I am also delighted to have secured Bassetlaw as a location for a Levelling Up Partnership. These partnerships, which have helped in Blyth, Grimsby and Blackpool already, are part of a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities intervention to help unlock barriers to growth. This aims to improve outcomes locally, but also better coordinate government to support regeneration.
