Childcare fees set to rise

Parents will have to pay more for daycare from 2013, and rich families will no longer get some payouts under plans to reform spending on childcare, social affairs minister Henk Kamp told MPs on Monday.


In total, spending on child-related policies will be cut by €1.5bn and the number of schemes and payments reduced by three to nine.
The cost of subsidising childcare and other child-related grants has gone up by €3bn over the past five years and has become very complicated, Kamp said.
One-third

In particular, the changes will affect families with children in daycare. Parents used to pay one-third of the bill but that has now fallen to below 25%, he said. To redress the balance, from 2013, parents will pay 16.25% more for a creche place.
The changes mean low income families with two children will have to pay at least €37 more a week for two days’ daycare while the bill for better-off families will go up by a maximum €290, according to the Volkskrant.
Childcare subsidies will also be linked to parents’ working hours to make sure people actually work while their children are being looked after.

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