EXCERPTS
A broken Tory pledge for tax-free childcare this year will leave families at least £1,600 out of pocket, writes Nigel Nelson in the Sunday People.
David Cameron promised to bring in the plan in September to aid up to 1.9 million working families.
But the Prime Minister now says he will be unable to deliver it until January 2017 at the earliest.
Analysis by Labour shows that a family with a child under two will have to pay an average £1,642 more for a nursery place.
Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt said: “Cameron’s failure to deliver on childcare shows that he is not serious about putting working people first.”
Tax-free childcare was a top Tory manifesto pledge
And in his Budget speech last week, Chancellor George Osborne claimed childcare was “a promise delivered”.
Under the scheme parents would set up an online account giving them a 20% rebate for each child under 12 for childcare costs of up to £10,000-a-year.
But the Government blundered on the way it was to be delivered, putting the scheme back six months.
A legal challenge from a childcare voucher provider has further delayed roll out until early 2017 – and Labour fears that it could be even longer.
Parents with a child under two face paying £23.46 more a week for another 70 weeks.
The cost of this type of childcare has soared by £1,500 since 2010.
-reprinted from Mirror