Badenoch Would Scrap the £100,000 Childcare Cut-Off in England
Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives would remove the £100,000 income limit for childcare support if they return to government.
She told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the party would scrap the cliff edge. The interview was broadcast on 3 October as the Conservatives gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham BBC. Parents would keep support even if one parent earns more than £100,000.
How the rules work now
In England, families receive funded hours or tax-free childcare only if no parent earns more than £100,000 a year. Since September 2025, working parents in England have been entitled to 30 hours of free childcare for children aged nine months to four. Both parents must earn less than £100,000 to qualify.
The same limit applies to tax-free childcare. The BBC said the government adds £2 for every £8 parents pay into an online account, up to £2,000 per child per year BBC. A small pay rise above £100,000 can leave parents thousands of pounds worse off, because they lose funded hours and top-up payments together.
Badenoch said the rules were 'absurd' The Telegraph. Asked if someone earning £1m a year would get free childcare, she said it does not matter what you earn and people should not be punished for working hard.
How the party says it would pay for it
The Conservatives put the cost at £700 million. The party said it would be paid for by reducing staff in executive non-departmental public bodies — quangos that carry out public work at arm's length from ministers — to save £1.6bn by 2029-30.
The party said scrapping the limit is a first step in wider work on tax incentives to work and invest. Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said removing the cliff edge is the first step in the party's mission to deliver lower, simpler and fairer taxes. He will address tax incentives in his conference speech on Monday.
The broader context here is that a cliff edge acts like a switch rather than a slope. Earnings just above £100,000 face very high marginal withdrawal rates, where extra pay is wiped out by lost support over a narrow band of income. That can shape decisions on hours, promotion and pension contributions. Successive governments have faced pressure to taper the limit rather than keep an all-or-nothing cut-off.
Looking at what this means for the parties, the choice is between universal help and targeted help. Removing the cap would simplify administration and end the distortion. It would also extend state subsidy to very high earners. Ministers will attack that trade-off. The Conservatives will argue simplicity and work incentives outweigh it, and will link the pledge to savings on quangos. Childcare is devolved, so Holyrood, the Senedd and Stormont — the parliaments and assembly for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — set their own provision. A change in England would not automatically apply elsewhere.
