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Childcare: Grandparents

Volume 707: debated on Thursday 12 February 2009

Question

Asked by

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) grandmothers, and (b) grandfathers regularly provide informal childcare thereby enabling parents to sustain paid employment; and what are the ethnic backgrounds of those grandparents; and [HL1202]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) grandmothers, and (b) grandfathers regularly provide informal childcare for at least 20 hours per week, thereby enabling parents to both to sustain paid work and to pay their own national insurance; and what are the ethnic backgrounds of those grandparents; and [HL1203]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) grandmothers, and (b) grandfathers regularly provide informal childcare for at least 20 hours per week are below state retirement age; and what are the ethnic backgrounds of those grandparents; and [HL1204]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) grandmothers, and (b) grandfathers regularly provide informal childcare for at least 20 hours per week are below state retirement age and not accruing their own basic state pension; and what are the ethnic backgrounds of those grandparents. [HL1205]

Data are not collected centrally on the number or characteristics of grandparents providing informal childcare. Information is not collect centrally on the gender, ethnicity, age, employment status or pension contributions of grandparents providing informal childcare.

The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents collects information from parents on the types of childcare that families had used, including informal provision such as childcare by grandparents. The 2007 survey estimated that 25 per cent of families had used grandparents to provide childcare in the week before the survey. This equates to approximately 1.3 million families.

The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents asks parents about their use of childcare in the week before the survey interview. Information on hours of childcare used is not available in the form requested. It is not possible to determine from the available data whether the provision of grandparental childcare takes place regularly and whether it is used to enable families to sustain paid work and make national insurance contributions.

Asked by

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) lone parent families, and (b) partnered parent families are enabled to sustain paid work by the regular provision of grandparental childcare; and what are the ethnic backgrounds of those lone parents and partnered parents; and [HL1206]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) lone parent families, and (b) partnered parent families are enabled to sustain paid work and pay their own national insurance by the regular provision of grandparental childcare for at least 20 hours per week; and what are the ethnic backgrounds of those lone parents and partnered parents; and [HL1207]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) lone parent families, and (b) partnered parent families, are enabled to sustain paid work and pay their own national insurance by the regular provision of grandparental childcare of at least 20 hours per week from grandparents who are not accruing their own basic state pension; and whether they will specify the ethnic backgrounds of those lone parents and partnered parents; and [HL1216]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (a) lone parent families, and (b) partnered parent families, are enabled to sustain paid work and pay their own national insurance by the regular provision of grandparental childcare of at least 20 hours per week by grandparents who are not accruing their own basic state pension and who are below state retirement age; and whether they will specify the ethnic backgrounds of those lone parents and partnered parents. [HL1217]

The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents collects information on the types of childcare that families had used, including informal provision such as childcare by grandparents. The 2007 survey estimated that 25 per cent of couple families and 24 per cent of lone parent families had used grandparents to provide childcare in the week before the survey.

Table 1 below shows the percentage of couples and lone parent families who had used grandparents to provide childcare by the ethnicity of the respondent to the 2007 survey.

Table 1: Percentage of families using grandparents to provide childcare in the last week, by family type and ethnicity1

Couples

Lone parent

All families

White

27

26

27

Black

5

8

7

Asian

15

19

15

Mixed race and other ethnic groups

13

19

15

All families

25

24

25

The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents asks parents about their use of childcare in the week before the survey interview. Information on hours of childcare used is not available in the form requested. It is not possible to determine from the available data whether the provision of grandparental childcare takes place regularly and whether it is used to enable families to sustain paid work and make national insurance contributions.

The survey does not collect information on the age, employment status or pension contributions of grandparents providing informal childcare and this information is not collected centrally.

Asked by

To ask Her Majesty's Government what would be the estimated cost of allowing the transfer of the carer's credit under section 3 of the Pensions Act 2007 from the parent drawing the child benefit to the grandparent, where the grandparent is providing regular childcare of at least 20 hours per week, thereby enabling the parent to sustain paid work and to pay her own national insurance, but where the grandparent is not paying her own national insurance and is below state retirement age, assuming (a) 100 per cent take-up by grandparents, and (b) 15 per cent take-up by grandparents, at (1) 2010, (2) 2020, (3) 2030, and (4) 2050. [HL1218]