UK government rejects request by thousands of women to examine childcare costs

theguardian.com:

Tens of thousands of women who asked the government to look into cripplingly expensive childcare costs in the UK had their demands for an inquiry rejected by the government on International Women’s Day.

A petition calling for an independent review of childcare funding and affordability gathered 113,713 signatures, and triggered a debate on childcare in parliament.

But at 3.36am on International Women’s Day those that had signed the petition were told the government had no plans to look into the cost and availability of childcare in an email from the petitions committee, which published the government’s response to its report on the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on new parents.

In September last year a survey shared with the Guardian revealed that 96% of more than 20,000 working parents said ministers were not doing enough to support parents with the cost and availability of childcare while 97% said childcare in the UK was too expensive.

The survey revealed low-income parents and those on universal credit were resorting to using food banks as a result of the high cost of childcare.

The petitions committee stated that government response also “fails to commit” dedicated catch-up funding to deal with the backlog in parental mental health and health visiting services and “repeats the government’s commitment, originally given in its response to the committee’s first report on this issue, to strengthening redundancy protections for new and expectant mothers, but again fails to set a timetable for doing so”.

The government said it had announced £500m in the 2021 autumn spending review for early years services, including mental health services for new parents. It added: “Tax-free childcare is a great offer for working parents”.

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