Chancellor urged to help working parents in South Yorkshire with childcare costs
There are calls for working parents in South Yorkshire to be given more help to meet the cost of childcare
The chancellor's being urged to announce plans in the Autumn Statement to help working parents in South Yorkshire afford childcare.
It's thought Phillip Hammond might announce new childcare support as he updates MPs on the government's spending plans this afternoon.
Becca Mughal's a childminder in Rotherham - she says it must benefit working families:
"I have a friend who can't go back to work as a teaching assistant because she can't afford the childcare for twins. Because she would be going to work just to pay for childcare.
"They can't get the free funding, the 15 hours. They're relying on grandparents and aunties and uncles and friends to look after their children for them so they don't have to have that cost of childcare. If maybe they got help, their 2 year-old could access the childcare like the 2 year-old of the parents that aren't working.
"Why don't the government put some money into helping working parents? There's nothing there for people working full time. I have a lot of parents that work full time and I have the children 10 hours a day. I'm charging as low as I can to make it affordable for parents and it's just not working. The government need to look at something because this is not working."
It comes as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has told a newspaper Phillip Hammond needs to provide "honest solutions to the childcare crisis" in the Autumn Statement.
Becca says the current support just isn't enough:
"The government are introducing a scheme where if a parent pays so much into it, they top it up by, I think, ÂŁ2. It's still not enough - if they want people in work they need to help the people who want to help themselves not the people who don't want to help themselves."
We asked the government for a response but they didn't get back to us.