30 Hours Funded Childcare: Who Qualifies and the Deadlines That Catch Parents Out
The funded childcare offer for working parents in England is now 30 hours a week for children from 9 months old up to the September after they turn four. It is the single biggest reduction in childcare costs most families will ever see, and it is also the scheme people most often lose money on, because it runs on term dates and hard deadlines rather than on when you happen to need it.
Miss a deadline by a day and you wait an entire term. Not a week. A term. So this piece is mostly about timing.
One thing to be clear about before we start: this is the England scheme. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own funded early learning and childcare offers with different hours, different ages and different eligibility. If you are outside England, check with your local authority rather than assuming the figures below apply.
What you actually get
30 hours a week, for 38 weeks of the year. That is term time. The 38 weeks matters: a nursery that is open 51 weeks a year will usually spread the funded hours across the whole year, which comes out at about 22 hours a week instead of 30. That is not the nursery being difficult, it is the arithmetic of stretching a term-time entitlement over a full year.
The entitlement covers children aged 9 months to 4 years old. You can apply from when your child is 23 weeks old, and you should, because of the deadlines below.
Who Qualifies
You and your partner, if you have one, each need to be in work or about to start a job, and each need to expect to earn at least a set minimum over the next three months. The minimum is based on the National Living Wage for 16 hours a week at your age band.
| Your age | Minimum over 3 months | Roughly 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 | £128 |
At the other end, neither you nor your partner can expect an adjusted net income over £100,000 for the current tax year. That includes any foreign income. This is a cliff edge, not a taper: one pound over and the whole household loses the entitlement, which is why some parents near the line increase their pension contributions to bring adjusted net income back under it.
Self-employed parents are included, and if you started your business in the last 12 months you do not have to meet the minimum earnings test. There are also allowances for parents on parental leave, sick leave, or with caring responsibilities, where one parent can still count as working. If you are in an unusual situation, check rather than assuming you are out.
The deadlines that catch people out
This is the part worth writing on the fridge. Funded hours start at the beginning of a term, and there is a hard application deadline before each one.
| Child turns 9 months | Hours can start | Apply by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 September to 31 December | 1 January | 31 December |
| 1 January to 31 March | 1 April | 31 March |
| 1 April to 31 August | 1 September | 31 August |
Read that table carefully. A child who turns 9 months on 2 September does not start funded hours until 1 January. A child who turns 9 months on 30 August starts on 1 September. Four days of birthday, four months of nursery fees. There is nothing you can do about the date your child was born, but there is plenty you can do about applying on time.
Apply early. The window opens up to four months before the term starts, and applying on the last day of the month leaves no room for the application to be queried. Getting an eligibility code on 30 December, over Christmas, with HMRC's helpline shut, is a bad plan.
The code, and the reconfirmation everyone forgets
When you are approved you get an 11-digit eligibility code. You give that to your childcare provider along with your National Insurance number and your child's date of birth, and they check it with the local authority.
The code is not permanent. You have to reconfirm your details every three months through your childcare account. If you do not, the code lapses. There is usually a short grace period so your child does not lose their place immediately, but if the code has expired at the point the provider checks it at the start of a term, you can end up paying full fees for that term.
Stacking it with Tax-Free Childcare
Funded hours and Tax-Free Childcare use the same online childcare account and the same eligibility test, and you can use both at once. That is the combination that makes the sums work for most families.
Tax-Free Childcare adds £2 for every £8 you pay in, capped at £500 every three months, or £2,000 a year per child. For a disabled child it is £1,000 every three months, up to £4,000 a year. You use it for whatever the funded hours do not cover.
What you cannot do is claim Tax-Free Childcare alongside Universal Credit, tax credits, or employer childcare vouchers. Funded hours are different: those are available whichever of those you are on, provided you meet the working parent test.
A worked example
Say your child is 18 months old, you use a nursery three full days a week at £65 a day, and the nursery is open 51 weeks a year and stretches the funded hours.
Before funded hours: 3 days a week × £65 × 51 weeks = £9,945 a year, or £829 a month.
With stretched funded hours: 30 hours × 38 weeks = 1,140 funded hours a year, spread as roughly 22 hours a week. Three full days is around 30 hours, so about 8 hours a week remain chargeable, plus whatever the nursery charges for meals and consumables.
Say that leaves £230 a month payable. Paying it through Tax-Free Childcare means you put in £184 and the government adds £46.
Effective cost: around £184 a month against £829. The exact numbers depend entirely on your provider's hourly rate and charges, so run yours through the childcare cost calculator rather than trusting an example.
Things worth knowing before you choose a setting
- Not every provider offers funded places. They are not obliged to. Ask before you get attached to a nursery.
- Some providers cap funded hours to certain sessions. A setting might only allow funded hours on particular days or only for morning sessions, which may not fit your working pattern.
- You can split hours between two providers. Up to two settings in a day is generally allowed, which suits families using a nursery and a childminder, or a nursery and a school nursery class.
- Ask how they handle the stretch. A 38-week entitlement stretched over 51 weeks is standard, but the way it is presented on an invoice varies enormously and some are much clearer than others.
- Ask what happens in the holidays. If the setting closes for four weeks a year, check whether you are still charged for those weeks.
If your circumstances change
If your income drops below the minimum, or one of you stops working, you usually keep the funded hours until the end of the following term. That grace period exists so a child is not pulled out of a setting mid-term. It does not extend indefinitely, so use it to sort out the next step rather than hoping it goes unnoticed.
If your income rises above £100,000, the entitlement ends. Tell HMRC rather than waiting to be found out, because funded hours you were not entitled to can be recovered.
If your working pattern changes so that you no longer need 30 hours, tell the provider in line with their notice period. Most want a full half-term's notice and will charge if you do not give it.
For the wider picture on how these schemes fit together, the guide to UK childcare costs covers the lot, and the FAQ answers the questions that come up most.