Childcare help all about workforce boost

Getting women into work is more important to the federal government than reducing the childcare support it provides to wealthy parents.

The government looks set to ignore a Productivity Commission recommendation to cut childcare subsidies for high-income households, arguing it could discourage women from returning to work after having children.

"We don't want to do things in making changes to this area which could risk eroding workforce participation, particularly for women," Social Services Minister Scott Morrison told Sky News on Tuesday.

Instead the government is likely to adopt a new tapered childcare subsidy for wealthier families while increasing it for low and middle-income earners.

But the subsidy rate for families earning more than $250,000 a year could be closer to 50 per cent rather than the 20 per cent the commission recommended.

The government also appears set to guarantee all parents access to at least 12 hours a week of subsidised childcare even if they aren't working or studying.

That's also more generous than the commission recommended.

The government's main test for any changes is what would help get the most people into work, Mr Morrison said.

"They're not welfare payments," he told reporters in Canberra.

"They're there to assist people into the workforce and to be able to stay in the workforce."

Any increase in childcare subsidies will be fully offset by cuts in family tax benefits announced last year but stalled in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Family First senator Bob Day is upset the planned families package abandons stay-at-home parents.

The childcare package will be announced before the budget.