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By Rachel Lawler

 

The closure of the childcare voucher scheme to new parents has had a “significantly negative impact” on families, according to the .

 

The association 18,686 parents, 808 employers and 1,130 childcare providers about their experiences with the scheme.

 

Almost half of the providers asked said that the closure of the scheme has created an increased administrative burden for them as they now need to help parents access the Tax-Free Childcare scheme instead.

 

The childcare voucher scheme closed to new applications in October 2018. Parents that were already signed up to the scheme before October 2018 are still able to keep using the scheme, as long as they stay with the same employer and their employer continues to offer the vouchers.

 

The survey also found that 98% of current users were happy with the childcare voucher scheme, while 60% of parents who had signed up with Tax-Free Childcare found the scheme “problematic, unclear and confusing”.

 

Jane van Zyl, chief executive of Working Families, said: “This report confirms that the closure of the childcare voucher scheme is bad for employers and bad for parents.”