How will Government pay childcare upfront for Universal Credit? Please help & alleviate my anxiety! 12 March at 8:05PM in Benefits & tax credits 3 replies 295 views

Tommy_77723

Hi,

I have read about the upcoming changes to Universal Credit and childcare.

If the Government are to start paying childcare up front, how will this work?

We get our monthly invoice for Nursery towards the end of the month, meaning that there would not be a lot of time for this to be paid for by Government before it was due etc.

I'm guessing claimants will have two separate payments now? Firstly, one for childcare and then a second one for the other elements?

Will they remove the childcare element from all statements if it is paid beforehand?

I'm worried because without our childcare element on our statement we would get a nil award (Our standard element + children element WITHOUT childcare element would be zero). What if childcare is removed from the statement and then we would get a nil award and it would close for the following month.

How do people think this will be rolled out? Sorry for all the questions - just anxious about how this will look!

calcotti

We don’t know what changes will be made until any changes are announced.

spaniel101

Nobody knows - everything is just speculation at this point.   The devil will be in the detail next Wednesday, although it looks increasingly likely upfront costs may be for those 'moving' into work or 'increasing' their hours - not necessarily for the majority already in work as such (they are not that helpful !).

https://twitter.com/xtophercook/status/1634859400111472642?s=20

huckster

Option could be a childcare advance loan, similar to new claim or budgeting advances ? 

By adding a new advance type within the UC Service, this would make the process easier ?