Rejected petition Change the income cap for free childcare to an increased, household cap.

If a child lives in a household where two parents earn £99,999, and there's a combined income of £199,998, the child could still get funding. But if one parent earns £101k and the other is on minimum wage they get no hours at all. This gives the existing system true equality.

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Revise and reform the eligibility for free child care hours for children aged four and under.

It's the mother who is usually the lower-earner and without any childcare subsidy they can be priced out of work and their career suffer.
Child care fees can range from £800-£2300 per month, child care hours for a parent looking to get back into the work place can mean the difference between getting a job/working just to put your child into nursery and restarting a career or small business.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

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You may wish to sign these petitions which calls for similar action:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/744825
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/760916

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 23 February 2026
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