Tax-free childcare will be doubled to 30 hours a week says Chancellor Philip Hammond in Autumn Statement 2016
PLANS to double free childcare hours for working parents were confirmed by the Chancellor.
The Government has introduced 15 hours a week for all kids aged three and four and he said it would rise to 30 for working families from September in the Autumn Statement.
However, the National Day Nurseries Association warns the funding its members expect to receive to provide 30 hours of free childcare will not be enough.
The Chancellor confirmed tax-free childcare would be rolled out across Britain from early 2017.
'It will take a bit of pressure off'
The Craiks will be £2,000-a-year better off when free childcare hours double next year.
Carl, 26, and Emma’s children Lucie, two, and Kayden, four, need 45 hours total childcare each week.
Their 15 hours free will rise to 30 after yesterday’s Autumn Statement.
Emma, 23, of North Shields, Tyne and Wear, said: “It will take a bit of pressure off.”
TAMPONS TAX STAYS
THE hated tampon tax has still not been scrapped despite ex-PM David Cameron promising in March that the UK “will be able to have a zero rate for sanitary products”.
Tampons are deemed a luxury item by Eurocrats, meaning EU member states must charge a minimum tax on them of five per cent.
But Chancellor Philip Hammond said yesterday he would give the £3million raised in VAT to “Comic Relief to distribute to a range of women’s charities”.
Former Chancellor George Osborne promised to remove the tampon tax altogether in November 2015 but the move was blocked by Brussels.
Last night Treasury sources said they would continue to give the money raised from the tax to charity until it can be scrapped when we leave the EU.