Help Provide Childcare for the Poorest Children
A staggering 63% of all families are struggling to pay for childcare costs. Parents are having to cut back on food, get into debt, some are even having to move home to keep up with their childcare bill. And for the very poorest parents, 25% said they had been forced to turn down a job because of childcare costs.
The government says that work is the best route out of poverty and we agree. But the government's reforms 'to make work pay' risk being undermined by rising prices and the cut in government support for childcare costs.
The government will be deciding in the coming days how much to invest in childcare support in the new welfare system to be introduced in 2013. You can help make sure they invest enough by signing our petition now and sending a message to George Osborne that he's the person who can and must deliver on the promise to make work pay.
Please take action now - sign our petition calling for enough affordable childcare support for struggling families in the UK.
We the undersigned call on the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to commit to invest enough in the new universal credit so that no parent is priced out of work because of childcare costs.
The government should increase support from 70% to 80% of childcare costs for parents on universal credit (up to current maximum weekly caps) to ensure that low income families have improved incentives to work.
Supporting families into work is vital if we are to tackle child poverty. Make this investment, and the Chancellor will be delivering on the government's promise to 'make work pay'.
