Who qualifies?
Eligibility for Tax-Free Childcare turns on four questions: are you in work, do you earn enough, do you earn too much, and is your child young enough? Both parents must pass the work and income tests where there are two parents, and the tests are applied to each parent individually, not to the household total. That individual treatment is important: two parents each earning £99,000 can qualify, while a single earner on £101,000 with a non-earning partner cannot.
The work test
You usually qualify if you, and your partner where you have one, are in work — employed or self-employed — or on sick leave or annual leave. You can also usually qualify if you are on maternity leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, adoption leave, statutory neonatal care pay, or bereaved partner's paternity leave. If you are starting or returning to work, you can usually qualify too, but when you may apply depends on your start or return date, as explained on the application page.
If you are not working at the moment, you may still qualify if your partner is working and you receive one of the following: Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer's Allowance (or Carer Support Payment in Scotland), contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance, or National Insurance credits. Equivalent benefits from the European Economic Area or Switzerland may also count. The point of these exceptions is that a parent who cannot work because of illness, disability, or caring responsibilities is not shut out merely because they are not earning.
The minimum earnings test
Each parent must expect to earn at least the following over the next three months, before tax. The figures are set at the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage for 16 hours a week on average:
| Your age | Minimum over the next 3 months | Same as per week |
|---|---|---|
| 21 or over | £2,643.68 | £203.36 |
| 18 to 20 | £2,256.80 | £173.60 |
| Under 18, or an apprentice | £1,664.00 | £128.00 |
Note the quirk in the middle row: the three-month figure for 18 to 20 year olds is £2,256.80 on GOV.UK, which is the same as £173.60 a week. If your income is irregular, you can use an average of what you expect to earn over the current tax year instead — for example, GOV.UK gives the case of a parent aged 21 or over with no regular income who earns £10,574.72 a year, which averages to the same £2,643.68 every three months. Self-employed parents have their own averaging rules, covered on the self-employed page. Some kinds of income do not count towards the minimum at all: dividends, interest, income from investing in property, and pension income are all excluded. What counts is earnings from work.
The £100,000 cap — a cliff, not a taper
Neither parent may expect adjusted net income over £100,000 in the current tax year. Adjusted net income is not the same as salary: it includes bonuses, dividends, savings interest, rental profit, and any foreign income, minus pension contributions and Gift Aid donations. The cap is a cliff edge, not a taper. At £100,000 you qualify; at £100,001 you do not, and the whole top-up is lost, not just a slice of it. Because pension contributions reduce adjusted net income, a parent just over the line can sometimes restore eligibility with a pension payment or salary sacrifice before the tax year ends — but that is a decision to take with proper financial advice, not something to improvise at the end of March.
Age limits and disability
Your child is eligible until the September after they turn 11. If your child is disabled, eligibility runs until the September after they turn 16, and the child must be certified as blind or severely sight-impaired, or receive Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment, Child Disability Payment (Scotland only), or Adult Disability Payment (Scotland only). The child must usually live with you, and you cannot claim for a child you foster. You also cannot claim if you or your partner receive a childcare bursary or grant for the same care.
Immigration status
You must have a National Insurance number and at least one of the following: British or Irish citizenship, settled or pre-settled status (or an application awaiting a decision), or permission to access public funds — your eVisa or UK residence card will say if you cannot do this. Your partner must have a National Insurance number too. Frontier workers — people living in the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein whose work is in the UK, started before 1 January 2021, and who have worked in the UK at least once every 12 months since — may still qualify, and must show a Frontier Worker permit when applying.
Sources: GOV.UK, Tax-Free Childcare (eligibility and frequently asked questions); Best Start in Life, How Tax-Free Childcare works; Childcare Payments Act 2014.