Government subsidies for childcare have not had much effect on boosting the number of women in work, the government’s macro-economic planning agency CPB said on Tuesday.

In a new report, the CPB says many women had already organised informal childcare before the subsidy boom. They now use the government cash to pay for alternative help, such as daycare or a registered child minder.
In 2004, professional childcare was available for some 20% of four to 12-year-olds. By 2008, that had risen to 50%, the CPB says.
But the rise in women working over the same period has been modest, and is partly due to more childless women working, the organisation said.