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Tax-free childcare helps working parents with the cost of childcare.
Families can get up to £500 every 3 months (up to £2,000 a year) for each child aged 11 or under, or up to £1,000 every 3 months (up to £4,000 a year) for a disabled child aged 16 or under.
To qualify, parents must meet employment, income and immigration requirements.
Parents must be working to qualify. If a parent has a partner, both will usually need to be working, although a family may still qualify where one parent is receiving certain disability or carer’s benefits and the other parent is working.
Each parent must expect to earn at least the equivalent of the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week, averaged over a 3‑month period. Families will not qualify if either parent expects to earn over £100,000 in the current tax year.
Further details are available in government guidance on tax-free childcare.
The parent who applies must meet a residence requirement based on their immigration status.
This is usually met where the parent has:
The parent applying (and their partner, if they have one) must have a National Insurance number.
A parent with a no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition cannot apply for tax-free childcare themselves, but can be included in an application made by a partner who meets the requirement. Tax-free childcare is not classed as a public fund, so a person with NRPF would not be in breach of their immigration conditions where they are included in a partner's application.
If a single parent has NRPF, or both parents in a household have NRPF, the family will not qualify for tax-free childcare.
Further information about eligibility and how to apply is available in government guidance on tax free childcare.
Page updated: 16 June 2026
