The article has sources that claim even with the subsidies it generates profit due to enabling mothers to work (and opening up jobs for single parents) plus higher paying jobs for childcare based on studies done originally in multiple trialed places in the USA that made the same claim - for each dollar put in, the government got back twelve roughly. Simply -a mother that doesn’t work doesn’t generate income tax and children who grow up in poor environments have bad outcomes that cost the government money. No where does the article claim that the parents shoulder the actual cost.