The prime minister said this would create an extra 600,000 free childcare places for working families every year, saving families up to £5,000 and ensuring that ‘work pays’.
The Conservatives would make up to 9 million extra hours of childcare a week available, allowing parents to work an extra 78 days a year without any childcare costs by 2017.
‘So if you’re a working parent with a one-year-old, you can rest assured that by the time they’re three, they’ll be able to go to nursery for 30 hours a week – completely free,’ Cameron added.
‘And we have legislated for tax-free childcare for anything outside that. If you spend £10,000 on childcare, you will get £2,000 back – for each child.’
He also promised to increase the personal tax allowance to £12,500, so no worker on minimum wage working 30 hours a week will be subject to income tax.
‘And that won’t just be for now; it will be forever – because we’ll write it into the law of the land,’ he said.
‘In other words, we’re making work pay. I’ve said it before: I’m not in this job to be some high-powered accountant. I don’t just want the lines on the graph to go in the right direction… I want lives to go in the right direction. I believe passionately in reducing poverty. And the best route out of poverty is this: work.’
Tristram Hunt, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said the policy was unfunded. ‘Hard-working families will not be fooled by the £600m gap in funding for this policy, as announced last week. It shows that David Cameron has no credible solutions to the problems facing working families.
