PARENTS are to get £2,000 per child under Budget plans to ease the cost of childcare.

The rules will be put in place earlier than expected, with all working parents with children under 12 eligible within a year from the scheme’s start, due in autumn 2015.

The previously announced online voucher scheme had promised parents up to £1,200 per child but that has now been increased to £2,000.

Stephanie Pybus, mother of six and owner of Mini Explorers Nursery, at Crabtree Hall, near Bedale, North Yorkshire, welcomed the measures although said she had hoped for more radical changes.

“I think they will be a benefit but I believe they could have done more, for example by increasing the amount of free childcare for three and four-year-olds from 15 to 25 weeks as had been talked about.”

Like others, Mrs Pybus is also critical that the benefits continue to exclude mothers who choose to stay at home, with only families where both parents work set to benefit.

While she said the new voucher scheme was welcomed - with only employees working for participating companies able to currently benefit - Mrs Pybus described the various payment methods for childcare as an “administrative nightmare” for her business and very confusing for new parents.

She added: “I think however that it is so important to be supportive of parents and to help fund early years childcare.

“At the very least, whether the Government launches a voucher scheme or gives a tax break, it validates parents’ choice to go back to work.”