Mums should be given an £8,000 childcare allowance to stay at home and look after their kids, according to a new report.
Researchers at the Civitas think tank have suggested bundling existing child payments into a single "Family Support Benefit" for parents with children aged under four.
The money would be spent on childcare, either to pay a grandparent or relative, or for the parent to be at home looking after their own children.
It is one suggestion published in a report by the think tank today, aimed at making childcare more affordable.
Civitas first suggests allowing parents to claim all their full child benefit entitlement over a three or four year period - instead of this being spread out until the child is 18.
Do you struggle to pay childcare? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
The think tank says a parent who would get £20,404 worth of Child Benefit entitlement over four years - while the child is under five years old - would get roughly £5,100 per annum for their first child.
On top of this, the report also suggests increasing child benefit to its pre-2010 levels. This would bring the annual payment to £6,273.
The "more radical" option would be to merge all Government expenditure on the early years into a single "Family Support Payment".
This would provide an extra £1,832 per annum to parents of children aged four and under 18, says Civitas.
It would increase the above figure of £6,273 to approximately £8,105, the think tank claims.
The new report states: "A Family Support Benefit would provide parents with the total support they are entitled to for their child and leave them with the freedom to choose how that is used.
"We would also propose that active parenting and relationship support is ‘bolted on’ to this benefit with some conditionality as a requirement – looking at the ‘how’ as well as the ‘how much’.
"This would allow working parents to place their children in early education facilities and childcare support provision but would also support stay-at-home parents and give them the financial freedom for one parent to care for their child full-time."
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Department for Education officials are locked in "intense conversations" about how to improve childcare in England.
A paper on how to make childcare more affordable is reported to be published in the coming weeks.
Do you struggle to pay childcare? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
