Childcare costs are often viewed as one of the biggest barriers to work, particularly for lone parents on low incomes. Date of school entry may therefore be an important determinant of parental (particularly maternal) decisions to enter work and/or leave benefits, as it may reduce the childcare costs associated with working.

We use administrative data containing work and benefit outcomes for lone parents on Income Support (provided by the Department for Work & Pensions), alongside school admissions policy data, to investigate whether (and how) date of school entry affects work decisions.

In particular:

• Does a child starting school induce parents to enter work?
• Does a child starting school encourage parents to stay in work for longer?
• Does a child starting school induce parents to leave means-tested benefits?

These results should enable us to gain a better understanding of the way in which low-income lone parents respond to childcare incentives, which might have important implications for the implementation and/or effectiveness of programmes designed to help lone parents into work.