30 hours funded childcare for working families

30 hours funded childcare is currently available for eligible working families of 3 and 4 year olds and is now referred to as the Working Parent Entitlement. The government is expanding this offer to children from 9 months to 2 years, in phases starting from April 2024. 

Find out more about the upcoming changes to childcare support on the Childcare Choices website.

Working parent entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds - 30 hours

3 and 4 year olds of working parents may also be entitled additional 570 hours per year on top of the universal entitlement, meaning these families will be able to claim up to 1,140 hours of funded early education per year. You may have heard this being talked about as "30 hours".

Eligible families can receive up to 30 hours funded per week for their child over 38 weeks of the year (term-time) or approximately 22 hours per week, each week of the year. The offer is not 30 hours funded each week of the year.

Parents must apply through HMRC for the extended entitlement. You can do this by clicking the apply button below.

Parent and carers can apply 16 weeks before their child turns three. If the parent is returning to work, they can apply 31 days before they start their job.

Application deadlines for the working parent entitlement

There are application deadlines in place for the working parent entitlement.

We strongly advise parents to apply well in advance of deadlines shown below as some applications can take 14 days to be resolved. If a code is not issued by the start of a funding period, the child will have to wait until the following funding period before they can take up the extended entitlement, as set out below:

If the child is already 3 and accessing their universal entitlement, the same principle applies that 30 hours funded childcare cannot begin until the funding period following successful application:

Confirming your eligibility

Every 3 months, parents will be asked to confirm that they are still eligible. You can confirm your eligibility again by logging into your childcare account on GOV.UK.

If the parent is no longer eligible for 30 hours funded childcare or they have missed the deadline for reconfirming their eligibility, the government has provided a 'grace period', a period of time when the child can continue to receive 30 hours funded childcare. Once the grace period ends, if the parent remains ineligible, the extended entitlement will finish and the child will receive their universal entitlement only.

If a parent applied very early, they may need to confirm that they are still eligible before the child has started their 30 hour place. If a parent receives an ineligible response when they reconfirm, or if they do not reconfirm in time before the child has begun accessing their 30 hours funded childcare, the grace period does not apply.

Validity start dates

The validity start date shown on the code issued by HMRC is the date the code was issued, not the date the child can start accessing 30 hours funded childcare. Validity start dates can be confusing for parents as they are not issued with an explanation about when the child could actually start.

You should take your code to your chosen childcare provider as soon as possible to book your 30 hour place. Your childcare provider will then start the process with the council to validate your code.

Qualifying criteria

In the same way as the universal entitlement, the child must be the right age to receive 30 hours funded childcare, even if the code shows an earlier validity start date:

To be eligible for the extended entitlement, both parents, or for single parent families the sole parent, must:

• Each expect to earn the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage for your age.

Where a parent is in a 'start-up period', for example they are newly self-employed, they do not need to demonstrate that they meet the income criteria for 12 months.

Both parents, or for single parent families, the sole parent must also:

• Live in England
• Expect to have an income of less than £100,000 each a year.

If one or both parents are unemployed, they must become employed within 31 days of applying.

There are some exceptions, and families will also be eligible if both parents are employed but one parent, or both parents, are:

• temporarily away from the workplace on maternity, paternity, adoption or parental leave
• temporarily away from the workplace on statutory sick pay
• are temporarily away from England for a period of up to 6 months, such as if they are in the military and on duty

Or if:

One parent is employed or self-employed and one parent gets one or more of the following benefits:

• Contribution based Employment and Support Allowance
• Carer's Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit or long-term Incapacity Benefit
• Severe Disablement Allowance
• National Insurance credits because of incapacity or limited capacity for work
• If the parent has been assessed as having limited capacity for work for Universal Credit purposes

Parents are not eligible if:

• They are in receipt of a childcare grant
• They are a full time student or an intern
• They are not entitled to receive public funds

30 hours for children in Foster Care

Foster carers who work outside of fostering responsibilities may be eligible for 30 hours funded childcare. Applications for children in foster care are dealt with by the child’s responsible Local Authority.

An application should be completed by the foster carer and the child’s social worker as shown in the guide below called Extending 30 hours to children in foster care, and not the HMRC application process. 

Other financial help to support with childcare costs

We would recommend parents complete the government's Childcare Calculator tool to find out what financial help could be available to them to support with approved childcare costs.

Tax Free Childcare, for example, could impact on a Tax credit award, therefore it’s important to understand which available schemes could financially benefit your family the most.

For more details about all government schemes, visit the Childcare Choices website.