Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Bryant on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending entitlement to free early education to all claimants of universal credit once universal credit has been fully rolled out.

Elizabeth Truss

Government-funded early education for three- and four-year-olds is already a universal entitlement, so there would be no cost of extending the entitlement. Universal Credit will be fully rolled out in the next Parliament, and spending decisions for that period have not been taken. This means it is, therefore not possible to estimate the potential cost on early learning for two-year-olds.