The Conservatives have promised to scrap the “absurd cliff edge” that mean parents in England lose out on childcare support when they earn more than £100,000 a year. Under the current system, only families where no parent earns more than this threshold are eligible for government-funded or tax-free childcare. “What we want to see is that people who work harder don’t get punished for doing so,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. The announcement comes as Conservative members gather for the party’s annual conference in Birmingham.
The party said the move would be a “first step” in broader efforts to address issues in the tax system which damage incentives to work or invest. This will be a theme of shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith’s conference speech on Monday. Since September 2025, working parents in England have been entitled to 30 hours of free childcare, external for children aged between nine months and four years old. However, to qualify both parents must earn less than £100,000 a year.
The same £100,000 threshold applies to the government’s tax-free childcare scheme, external. For every £8 paid into an online childcare account, the government adds £2, up to £2,000 per child per year, which parents can then use to pay for childcare. The Tories said they would remove the £100,000 threshold entirely so parents no longer lose childcare support when their income exceeds this level. The threshold has been criticised by economists, who point out it can leave parents worse off overall even after a pay rise of tens of thousands of pounds.
Badenoch told the BBC the party didn’t want “people to stop working because of that”. Speaking before the party’s conference, she added: “What we want to see is more people in work and not taking the wrong decisions or the wrong choices, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re earning £10,000 or £100,000 – what matters is that people are out there working”. Asked if this could result in someone who earns £1 million a year get free childcare under a Conservative government, Badenoch responded: “It doesn’t matter what you earn – we don’t want you to be punished for working hard. What we’re trying to do is grow our economy.” What does childcare cost and how do government-funded hours work in England?
Education secretary to ask competition watchdog to review hidden childcare costs Tories aim to be election-ready ahead of party conference The Tories argue the threshold may mean some people may delay having children until their incomes change, or decide not to start a family at all, describing scrapping it as “both pro-family and pro-growth”. By providing an increased incentive to work, the Tories said the move would also boost economic growth. They added that it would tackle the “unfairness” that the threshold is calculated on an individual earner’s income rather then for the whole household. In a statement, Griffith said: “Removing this childcare cliff edge is the first step in our mission to deliver lower, simpler, and fairer taxes across the board.” The party said the policy would be funded by cutting the number of public servants working in “executive non-departmental public bodies” – organisations which have a role in the processes of national government but operate at arm’s length from ministers, such as Arts Council England and the Environment Agency.
It said this would save £1.6bn by 2029-30, covering the estimated £700 million cost of removing the childcare “cliff edge”. Badenoch arrived in Birmingham on Saturday ahead of the annual conference, and vowed the party was new and different from the one that lost the 2024 general election. The party – which is currently polling behind Labour and Reform UK – is expected to use the event to lay out more of its growing policy agenda ahead of the next general election.
