According to the Guardian, the plan would put an end to the so-called “cliff edge” for access to free childcare: under the Conservative proposal, the current entitlement would be extended beyond an income of £100,000.
Kemi Badenoch has argued that people earning more than £100,000 should not be discouraged from working more, the Guardian reports. The argument thus links the extension of support to the threshold’s effect on employment.
The announcement was released on the eve of the start of the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham, according to the Guardian’s account.
The measure remains a proposal from the Conservative Party, however, rather than a confirmed government policy: the Guardian presents it as a party plan and does not indicate that it has been adopted by the government.
The figure given for the expansion is £700 million, according to information reported by the Guardian. The project would therefore focus on the group of taxpayers currently excluded from support above the threshold in place.
Badenoch and her party present the measure as a change to the system for accessing free childcare, but the available material does not document any government action. The proposal comes in the context of the Conservative conference in Birmingham, according to the Guardian.