Julian Astle, director of Centre Forum, said the government's failure to distinguish between education and childcare meant workless households were missing out on support through tax credits.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference fringe meeting After the crunch: How do we beat poverty? Astle acknowledged the government's recognition that the poorest families had the most to benefit from pre-school education.
But he said pre-school education and childcare had been bundled together in the government's 10-year childcare strategy.
"The problem is children in workless households are not means tested for the childcare element of the working tax credit because their parents are seen to be providing the childcare," he added. "By treating pre-school education the same as childcare, we are not getting it to those who need it most".
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