The call comes after childcare providers and child poverty campaigners welcomed this month's announcement that £300m will be used to allow parents working less than 16 hours per week to reclaim childcare costs.
However, the government has now been urged to include some measures within the universal credit that will benefit the majority of families, who work full time, or risk jeopardising parents' ability to pay for childcare and therefore remain in work.
Family and Parenting Institute chief executive Katherine Rake said the extra money for part-time workers is an important first step, but that more families need to be helped.
"The sky-high childcare prices faced by low-income parents in part-time jobs undermine the quality of their family life," she said. "But the overall changes and cuts to tax and benefits families have seen in the past 18 months threaten to eclipse this particular step forward.
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