- Do you earn less than £100,000 per year?
- Will your child be attending a 3 or 4 year old early education setting?
If so, they may be entitled to a further 15 hours of free childcare per week, for 38 weeks per year.
The aim of the extended entitlement is to:
Support working parents to manage the cost of childcare.
Support parents into work.
Allow parents to increase their working hours, should they wish to.
Some providers will offer “stretched” entitlement, meaning children can attend fewer hours per week over more than 38 weeks a year.
Parents can choose more than one provider to share these hours; however, the number of sites accessed in one day must not exceed two.
The additional hours will be available for families where:
Both parents are working (employed or self-employed) or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family. Each parent earns below £100,000 per year and no less than the weekly equivalent of 16 hours at National Minimum Wage.
Both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on parental, maternity, paternity leave or adoption leave.
Both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the work place on statutory sick pay.
One parent is employed and the other parent has a substantial caring responsibilities based on specific benefits received for caring.
To apply:
Visit https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
Complete the online application (deadline dates are 31st December, 31 March and 31stAugust).
Make a note of your unique voucher code.
To secure your 30-hour funded place with us
Complete the funding declaration form and provide us with your voucher code number, national insurance and date of birth.
Your details will be verified via our online portal.
You will be contacted to issue you with a start date.
You must validate your voucher code every three months.
How do I reconfirm?
You will get a text and/or email four weeks before your reconfirmation deadline from HMRC as a prompt to log into your Childcare Service account.
Your reconfirmation date is stored in your ‘secure messages’ and the section reconfirmation.
You can reconfirm your eligibility up to 4 weeks before your reconfirmation date.
What if I miss the reconfirmation deadline?
If you miss the deadline, or if your circumstances change, you will get a message to say your eligibility has ended. You will be able to keep your childcare place for the grace period. You will need to submit another application if you become eligible for the 30 hours and present your new voucher code to us again.
