Government spending on extra benefits to help pay for childcare fell by 18% last year, social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher has told MPs.

In total, the number of claims fell by 10% while the number of hours children spent in daycare was down 8%, the minister said. This is partly because families with a joint income of more than €118,189 no longer qualify for help with paying for daycare.

In addition, fewer children are now using daycare centres and playgroups, and those that do buy in fewer hours, Asscher said. Many daycare centres now allow parents to pay by the hour rather than for a full day, he said.

‘The figures are not good but they can be explained,’ Asscher said. ‘It is important that children can continue to go to daycare. I hope that the €150m extra we are allocating from January 1, 2014 can give the sector a boost. We are also working to improve quality and safety.’

Pre-school

Earlier this year, the national statisitics office CBS said the number of young children in organised daycare had fallen 11% over the past two years.

In December 2011, some 322,000 children under the age of four – around 44% of the total – attended a crèche, but this had fallen to 284,000, or 39%, by the end of last year.

A decline in the birth rate and economic developments are to blame for the drop, the CBS said.

In addition, the rules for childcare funding have changed and parents get less government help towards the cost. In 2008, the government paid four-fifths of the cost of a crèche place, but this has now fallen to 63%.

Jobs

Last year, the Netherlands’ daycare market leader Estro cut 400 out of 3,300 jobs because of falling demand for places, the Financieele Dagblad reported at the time.

The Estro group, which is owned by private equity firms KKR and Bayside Capital, operates nearly 600 daycare centres in the Netherlands.

Dozens of other daycare centres have closed or gone bankrupt because of the funding changes.

Nevertheless, Asscher told MPs the number of daycare centres has remained fairly stable but there has been a drop in after-school club provision and registered childminders.