30 Hours Free Childcare

From September 2017, working parents of three and four year olds will be entitled to 1,140 hours of childcare a year which is free of charge. This equates to 30 hours per week if the childcare is taken during term time only, and around 23 hours per week spread across the year. This is double the 570 hours a year that three and four year old children currently receive.

Who is eligible?

The 30 hours free childcare will be available to families with children aged three and four where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and where each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage or living wage, and neither parent earns more than £100,000 per year. This includes employed and self-employed parents and those on zero hours contracts who meet the criteria.

Download more information about the 30 hours scheme.

Parents will be able to apply for the 30 hours scheme (along with the new *Tax-Free Childcare scheme) through an online application being developed by HMRC.

*From April, 2017, Tax-Free Childcare will be also available to around 2 million households to help with the cost of childcare for children up to the age of 12, enabling more parents to work, if they want to. For every 80p they or someone else pays in, the government will top up an extra 20p. For more information go to the Government website