Badenoch proposes ending £100,000 childcare cap, funded by public-body cuts

Kemi Badenoch has pledged to remove the £100,000 income ceiling that excludes some working parents in England from funded childcare. Announced before the Conservative conference in Birmingham, the proposal would expand eligibility for higher earners. It is an opposition commitment, with no immediate change to applications.

The funding claim

The Conservatives put the annual cost at £700m and propose paying for it through reductions in staffing at arm’s-length public bodies. Party officials say those cuts could save £1.6bn by the end of the decade, excluding NHS bodies, according to ITV. Those estimates have not been established as savings already achieved.

What the current rule says

GOV.UK says parents are ineligible for the working-parents scheme if either partner expects adjusted net income above £100,000 in the tax year. This is not simply a headline salary test. Eligible children aged nine months to four can receive 30 hours a week for 38 weeks, subject to the remaining conditions.

A political dispute over priorities

Badenoch argues that the threshold discourages parents from accepting more work or a pay rise. Labour criticised the focus on higher earners and pointed to its existing early-years programme, ITV reports. For families making arrangements now, the official eligibility rules remain the relevant guide.