Tax-Free Childcare

You can get up to £500 every 3 months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of your children to help with the costs of childcare. This goes up to £1,000 every 3 months if a child is disabled (up to £4,000 a year).

If you’ve already registered, you can sign in to your childcare account.

If you get Tax-Free Childcare, you’ll set up an online childcare account for your child. For every £8 you pay into this account, the government will pay in £2 to use to pay your provider.

You can get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as 30 hours of free childcare through Free Childcare for Working Parents if you’re eligible for both.

What you can use Tax-Free Childcare for

You can use it to pay for approved childcare, for example:

childminders, nurseries and nannies
after school clubs and play schemes.

Your childcare provider must be signed up to the scheme before you can pay them and benefit from Tax-Free Childcare.

Check with your provider to see if they’re signed up.

If your child is disabled

You can use the extra Tax-Free Childcare money you get to help pay for extra hours of childcare. You can also use it to help pay your childcare provider so they can get specialist equipment for your child such as mobility aids. Talk to them about what equipment your child can get.

If your childcare provider is in an EEA country

You may be able to use Tax-Free Childcare to pay a provider based in a European Economic Area (EEA) country. Contact HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to check.

Eligibility

Your eligibility depends on:

whether you’re working (employed, self-employed, or a director)
your income (and your partner’s income, if you have one)
your child’s age and circumstances
your immigration status.

You can usually get Tax-Free Childcare, but you should apply from a certain date. That date will depend on when you return to work.

Date of returning to work	When to apply
Between 1 May to 30 September	From 1 April
Between 1 October to 31 January	From 1 September
Between 1 February to 30 April	From 1 January

You may still be eligible if your partner is working and you get any of the following:

Incapacity Benefit
Severe Disablement Allowance
Carer’s Allowance or (in Scotland only) Carer Support Payment
contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance

You can apply if you’re starting or re-starting work, but you should apply from a certain date. That date will depend on when you start or re-start work.

Date of starting work	When to apply
Between 1 May to 30 September	From 1 April
Between 1 October to 31 January	From 1 September
Between 1 February to 30 April	From 1 January

Over the next 3 months you and your partner (if you have one) must each expect to earn at least:

£2,539.68 before tax if you’re aged 21 or over (equivalent to £195.36 per week)
£2,080 before tax if you’re aged 18 to 20 (equivalent to £160 per week)
£1,570.40 before tax if you’re under 18 or an apprentice (equivalent to £120.80 per week).

This is the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week on average.

You can use an average of how much you expect to earn over the current tax year if:

you work throughout the year but do not get paid regularly
you’re self-employed and do not expect to earn enough in the next 3 months

Example

You’re eligible if you’re 21 or over and do not have a regular income but earn £10,158.72 a year. This is the same as earning £2,539.68 every 3 months on average.

If you’re self-employed and started your business less than 12 months ago, you can earn less and still be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare.

If you have more than one job, you can use your total earnings to work out if you meet the threshold. This includes:

earnings from any employment
earnings from any self-employment.

If you’re both employed and self-employed, you can use just your self-employment income if this would make you eligible. For example, if you expect your average self-employed earnings over the tax year to be more than you’ll get over the next 3 months as an employee.

Certain types of income will not count towards the minimum amount you must earn to be eligible.

These include:

dividends
interest
income from investing in property
pension payments.

If you or your partner have an expected ‘adjusted net income’ over £100,000 in the current tax year, you will not be eligible.

Your child must be 11 or under and usually live with you. They stop being eligible on 1 September after their eleventh birthday.

Adopted children are eligible, but foster children are not.

If your child is disabled and usually lives with you, you may get up to £4,000 a year until 1 September after their sixteenth birthday. They’re eligible for this if they:

get Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment, Child Disability Payment (Scotland only) or Adult Disability Payment (Scotland only)
are certified as blind or severely sight-impaired.

To be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare, you must have a National Insurance number and at least one of the following:

British or Irish citizenship
settled or pre-settled status, or you have applied and you’re waiting for a decision
permission to access public funds - your UK residence card will tell you if you cannot do this

If you have a partner, they must have a National Insurance number too.

If you’re living in an EU country, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you (or your partner if you have one) might still be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare if:

your work is in the UK
the work started before 1 January 2021
you’ve worked in the UK at least once every 12 months since you started working here

This is known as being a ‘frontier worker’. You must show your Frontier Worker permit to the Childcare Service when you apply for Tax-Free Childcare.

Childcare vouchers

You must tell your employer within 90 days of applying for Tax-Free Childcare to stop your childcare vouchers or directly contracted childcare.

They’ll then stop the vouchers or directly contracted childcare.

You may have to give HMRC evidence of leaving the childcare voucher scheme. For example, a copy of the letter telling your employer you’re leaving the childcare voucher scheme.

If you have a partner who gets vouchers or directly contracted childcare, they’ll need to tell their employer to stop this within 90 days too.

Universal Credit

Wait until you get a decision on your Tax-Free Childcare application before cancelling your Universal Credit claim.

Bursaries

If you or your partner get a childcare bursary or grant or expect to do so within the next 3 months, you cannot get Tax-Free Childcare.

For further information and to apply, please visit Tax-Free Childcare - GOV.UK.

Tax-Free Childcare

Main content area

What you can use Tax-Free Childcare for

If your child is disabled

If your childcare provider is in an EEA country

Eligibility

If you’re working

If you’re on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave

If you’re not currently working

Your income

Your child

Your immigration status

If you get Universal Credit, a childcare bursary or grant, or childcare vouchers

Childcare vouchers

Universal Credit

Bursaries