Badenoch vows to end £100k childcare cliff edge introduced under last Tory government
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to end the “absurd” childcare trap for parents earning above £100,000. On the first day of the party’s conference in Birmingham, Badenoch will announce that the childcare cliff edge – engineered under the previous Tory government – will be scrapped at a cost of about £700m per year. Former [...]
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to eliminate the "absurd" childcare cliff edge introduced by the previous Conservative administration. During the party's conference in Birmingham, Badenoch announced that the £700 million annual cost of scrapping the cliff edge will be implemented. The childcare cliff edge, created by former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, provided 30 hours of free childcare for children under four for parents earning under £100,000.
Badenoch criticized the policy, stating that earning just one extra pound could leave families worse off than those earning less. She emphasized that hardworking parents should not face penalties for earning more. Centax, a recent report on the policy's cost, found that nearly 12,000 parents purposefully earn below £100,000 to access free childcare.
The Conservatives plan to remove the cliff edge for tax-free childcare as well, with the expense offset by reducing the number of public servants in non-departmental public bodies, saving approximately £1.6 billion by 2030. Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith highlighted that the policy hindered career progression and led to fewer work hours.
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