West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has secured a major victory for parents with the introduction of childcare payment changes announced today by the Prime Minister. The MP wrote a paper earlier this year setting out plans for reform of childcare payments to encourage more parents to get back into work. And Harriett shared her thinking with both Number 10 and the Education Department – leading to the changes introduced today. The landmark announcement to introduce tax-free childcare which, when fully implemented, will be worth up to £1,200 every year, for each child under age 12 and could benefit two and a half million families. From Autumn 2015, the Government will meet 20 per cent of childcare costs for working families and so will save a typical working family with two children under 12 up to £2,400 a year. From the first year of operation, all children under 5 will be eligible, initially opening the scheme to 1.3 million families, and the scheme will build up over time to include children under 12. Harriett outlined her arguments in an article published in the political blog Conservative Home. She said: “Many couples choose one partner to stay at home to raise a family - often that is the mother, but many parents, even on professional incomes, find that the cost of childcare stops them being able to continue to work. “But rather than focus a subsidy on just low wage parents, let’s make it a universal full-time offer to all children aged between one and five and make free child care available just to those who will use it to work. “By enabling more women to remain in the workplace we will also gain the benefit of increasing the amount they contribute to the Exchequer in income tax. “We working mothers won’t match men in our earning power immediately, but in time removing this barrier to the full economic potential for women will surely pay for itself.”