https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/universal-credit
You may be able to claim back up to 85% of your childcare costs if you’re eligible for Universal Credit.
You (and your partner if you live with them) will usually need to either:
be working – it doesn’t matter how many hours you or your partner work
have a job offer
How much you’ll get
The most you can get back each month is:
£646 for one child
£1108 for 2 or more children
You can claim Universal Credit online.
If you stop working
Tell the Universal Credit helpline if you stop working. You can continue to claim childcare costs for at least one month after your job ends.
Where is the sense in this?
If the government are prepared to pay £646 for one child or £1108 for 2 or more children to a working family for child care why can’t they provide the same kind of payments for stay at home parents? The more I look at it the more I am starting to believe that this Universal Credit is absolute craziness.
If a child carer is working by looking after your children then surely so are the parents. This is just a STUPID idea that is designed to break up families an force people in to work. This will of coarse make government stats look much more impressive than they are because somebody looking after your child is employed. But when we (the parents) look after our children we are unemployed and I believe that this is much of the reason they do it. The illusion of jobs.
If you pay your neighbor to watch your children and they pay you to watch theirs the problem is solved! 100% employment to all parents.