"We don't want you to be punished for working hard”
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to scrap the £100,000 childcare earnings threshold if the Conservatives return to government.
The Conservative Party leader said the policy would prevent working parents from losing childcare support after receiving a pay rise.
Kemi Badenoch said: “What we want to see is that people who work harder don’t get punished for doing so.”
The announcement came as Conservative members gathered in Birmingham for the party’s annual conference.
Under the current system, working parents in England can receive 30 hours of government-funded childcare for children aged between nine months and four years.
However, the support is only available if neither parent earns more than £100,000 a year.
The same threshold applies to the government’s tax-free childcare scheme, which provides £2 for every £8 paid into an online childcare account.
Parents can receive up to £2,000 per child each year through the scheme.
The £100,000 threshold has been criticised because a pay rise can result in families losing access to childcare support.
This can create what has been described as a “cliff edge”, where earning more money can leave some parents financially worse off overall.
The Conservatives have promised to remove the threshold entirely for both free childcare hours and tax-free childcare.
Badenoch argued that people should not be discouraged from working or increasing their earnings:
“What we want to see is more people in work and not taking the wrong decisions or the wrong choices.
“It doesn’t matter whether they’re earning £10,000 or £100,000 – what matters is that people are out there working.”
Asked whether someone earning £1 million could receive free childcare under the proposal, Badenoch said the policy would apply regardless of income:
“It doesn’t matter what you earn – we don’t want you to be punished for working hard.”
The Conservatives said removing the threshold would be both “pro-family and pro-growth”.
The party argued that the current system could influence decisions around having children, particularly when families face significant childcare costs.
It also criticised the system for assessing eligibility based on individual earnings rather than total household income.
The Conservatives said the policy would cost around £700 million but could be funded by reducing the number of public servants working in executive non-departmental public bodies.
The party estimates this could save £1.6 billion by 2029-30.
Badenoch has also committed the Conservatives to keeping the state pension triple lock, under which pensions rise annually by whichever is highest between inflation, average wage growth or 2.5%.
Her announcement comes as the Conservatives attempt to establish a new political direction ahead of the next general election.
The party has been trailing Labour and Reform UK in polling, making the Birmingham conference an important opportunity to outline its policies.
