Tax-Free Childcare Statstics Background and Guidance
Published 27 May 2026
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-march-2026/tax-free-childcare-statstics-background-and-guidance
Section 1 – Background to Tax-Free Childcare
Tax-Free Childcare was launched to the public in April 2017 with a phased rollout by age of the youngest child in a family, completed in February 2018. The full rollout schedule is shown below.
Tax-Free Childcare rollout dates by age of youngest child
| Age | Date eligible |
|---|---|
| 0 to 3 years | 21 April 2017 |
| 4 years | June 2017 |
| 5 years | 24 November 2017 |
| 6 to 8 years | 15 January 2018 |
| 9 to 11 years | 14 February 2018 |
Comparisons should not be made between months before March 2018, when initial rollout was complete, and more recent months. Since the rollout was phased by age of the youngest child in a family, older children appearing in the tables may have joined Tax-Free Childcare before their apparent rollout date.
Children must be aged 11 and under, or 16 and under if they have a disability, to be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. They stop being eligible on 1 September after their 11th or 16th birthday. Families with a disabled child up to the age of 16 were able to sign up for Tax-Free Childcare in April 2017.
For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.
Tax-Free Childcare is run by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) with their delivery partners National Savings & Investments (NS&I). Accounts are fully online for the large majority of users. Parents pay into and make payments to childcare providers out of the same account. Parents are able to withdraw money for other purposes but lose the government top-up on anything removed.
An individual family may register for a Tax-Free Childcare account for multiple children. Separated or divorced parents cannot register an account separately for the same child.
In order to qualify for Tax-Free Childcare, families must have all adults earning the equivalent of at least the national minimum or living wage for 16 hours per week and can’t have income over £100,000 a year. They must not be claiming Universal Credit in any form or other disqualifying benefits such as Job Seeker’s Allowance.
Since September 2017, families in England have also been able to use the government’s offer of 30 hours funded weekly childcare for children aged 3 or 4. Families can access this offer provided all parents are earning at least the equivalent of the national minimum or living wage for 16 hours a week, and don’t have a taxable income over £100,000 annually.
Unlike Tax-Free Childcare, families are eligible for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare if they receive Universal Credit or childcare vouchers. Applications for both TFC and the DfE funded childcare scheme are linked and accessed through the same online portal.
When a family applies for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare and also meets the additional eligibility criteria for Tax-Free Childcare, a Tax-Free Childcare account is often opened, and vice versa. This leads to a discrepancy between ‘open’ and ‘used’ Tax-Free Childcare accounts, as shown in the commentary above and the tables accompanying this publication.
From April 2024, this offer was expanded to also include 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 2 years of eligible working parents. This was followed up by 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 9 months of eligible working parents in September 2024, and increased to 30 hours in September 2025.
Tax-Free Childcare replaced the childcare voucher and directly contracted childcare schemes, which closed to new entrants in October 2018. Tax-Free Childcare is available to families where one or more parents are self-employed. This is different to the employer supported childcare schemes, which are only available from some employers.
With childcare vouchers, a basic rate taxpayer can salary sacrifice up to £55 per week, with a maximum benefit of £933 per year per parent, whilst a higher rate payer can get up to £28 a week in vouchers. Whether a family is better off under Tax-Free Childcare or childcare vouchers will therefore depend on their circumstances.
Following the closure of childcare vouchers, parents who change employer and new parents are no longer able to receive childcare vouchers but may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare.
Whether a family can access Tax-Free Childcare may also depend on their preferred childcare provider. Childcare providers need to be signed up to Tax-Free Childcare before a family can make payments to them.
A key factor in monthly usage, reported here and in the tables accompanying this publication, is the number of working days within the month. A working day is defined as a weekday but excludes any national holidays. Further, seasonal variation also has an impact, such as lower usage during the August summer holidays. Each of these factors causes a degree of fluctuation from month to month distinct from longer-term trends.
Section 2 – Background to DfE 15 and 30 hours funded childcare
The Department for Education 15 and 30 hours funded childcare scheme became available in 2024. The rollout dates are shown below.
DfE 15 and 30 hours funded childcare rollout dates
| Date | Age (inclusive) | Funded childcare amount |
|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | 2 years | 15 hours |
| September 2024 | 9 months - 2 years | 15 hours |
| September 2025 | 9 months - 2 years | 30 hours |
Section 3 – Glossary and methodological notes
Changes to definitions and methodology 2025
To improve the accuracy and quality of the figures reported in this publication, some figures were revised in 2025. These changes apply to annual figures from financial year 2024 to 2025 onwards (first published in the March 2025 publication), and monthly figures from April 2025 onwards (first published in the June 2025 publication). These changes were not applied to earlier figures and no revisions were made to prior published statistics.
Two key methodological changes were:
- open accounts now include accounts that were open and within a TFC eligibility period at any point during the month rather than at the end of a given month
- accounts that are no longer open can still be used to pay for childcare, but are not able to receive government top-up. Such accounts were previously included in the total numbers of used accounts for families and children, as well as age, disability and regional breakdown figures. From April 2025, used but not open accounts are no longer reported in TFC used account figures
These changes are further described where applicable below.
The expected impact of these changes in numbers presented here and in the accompanying tables, relative to previous methodology, would be a modest increase in the number of open accounts and a modest decrease in the number of used accounts. Differences in figures may not be evenly distributed across age groups and regions for example, given the differences in childcare schemes available to children of different ages or between the nations of the United Kingdom.
Open account
An open Tax-Free Childcare account is one where a family has successfully applied for TFC and is within an ‘eligibility period’ according to data held by HMRC on their administrative systems.
The eligibility period is the period in which families receive top-up on any payments made through their account and usually lasts around 3 months. At the end of this period families are required to reconfirm their eligibility, and the period starts anew.
From April 2025, monthly open account figures in Table 1 (families) and Table 2 (children) are calculated based on having an open eligibility period on any day within a given month. Figures prior to April 2025 were calculated on the basis of having an open eligibility period on the last day of each calendar month.
Similarly, for annual figures from the 2024 to 2025 financial year onwards, annual open account figures in Tables 1 and 2 include those with an open eligibility period at any point in the financial year. Prior to the 2024 to 2025 financial year, figures were calculated as the numbers with an open account on the last day of any of the 12 months from April to March.
Families or children are likely to have open accounts in multiple months of the year, but will only be counted once in the annual figures.
Used account
A used account is defined as a TFC account from which a payment is made to a childcare provider within the month or year according to transactions data provided to HMRC by National Savings and Investments.
From April 2025, monthly total figures were adjusted to include only accounts that had made payments and were also ‘open’ as defined above. Payments to childcare providers can still be made from accounts that are not open, but such accounts would not be eligible to receive TFC government top-up. Parents who are no longer eligible for TFC may decide to do this rather than withdraw funds from their TFC account. Prior to April 2025, these accounts were included in columns referencing families or children with ‘total’ used accounts.
From April 2024, in Tables 1 and 2, used ‘TFC only’ or used ‘TFC and 15/30 hours’, but not ‘total’ accounts include only accounts that were also open according to the relevant definition at the time of publication. From April 2025, this was expanded to include ‘TFC only’ or ‘TFC and 15/30 hours’ in all tables as well as the ‘total’ used accounts. Figures prior to April 2024 include any account from which a payment was made.
The methodological changes applied in calculating monthly figures from April 2025 were also applied to annual figures presented from the 2024 to 2025 financial year onwards.
For Table 1 and other tables referencing families, used accounts are calculated as the number of families making a payment in the period. For Table 2, and other tables referencing children, used accounts are calculated as the number of children whose parents make a payment to a childcare provider on the child’s behalf.
The annual number of used accounts will not equal the sum of the 12 months in the year. This is because most families or children have used accounts over multiple months.
Identifying a child and a family
Families who register for Tax-Free Childcare are assigned a unique claim identifier within HMRC’s internal data. Children whose parents register are also given a unique identifier. It is therefore possible to link data across multiple children where they belong to the same family.
The relationship between Tax-Free Childcare and 30 and 15 hours funded childcare
In September 2017, the government launched its offer of 30 funded hours of childcare in England for children aged 3 and 4 (although parents were able to apply for and therefore open a 30 hours account from April 2017).
From April 2024, this offer was expanded to also include 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for eligible working parents with children aged 2 years. This was followed by 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 9 months up to 2 years in September 2024. In September 2025, this was increased to 30 hours for children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive).
Parents apply and have their eligibility checked for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare via the childcare service, the online application for Tax-Free Childcare and funded childcare. If a parent is found to be eligible, they will be given a 15 or 30 hours eligibility code.
A parent should take this code along with their National Insurance number and their child’s date of birth to their chosen childcare provider. The provider will either directly, or via their local authority, use the Department for Education’s Eligibility Checking System (ECS) to confirm the validity of the code.
Once the funded hours eligibility code has been validated via the ECS, the child will be able to take up their 15 or 30 hours place.
In applying for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare, many families find that they are also eligible for Tax-Free Childcare and a Tax-Free Childcare account is often also opened for them. This contributes to the discrepancy between open and used Tax-Free Childcare accounts that is seen in the data in the tables accompanying this release, and discussed in Section 7 above.
For this reason, used accounts are considered as the best measure of take up of Tax-Free Childcare.
How the figures for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare in this publication differ from other sources
Department for Education publish their own data on the numbers of children benefiting from funded early education, including those in a 15 or 30 hours place. Statistics about education provision for children under 5 years of age are published by DfE on GOV.UK
Because Tax-Free Childcare statistics only publishes numbers of open 15 or 30 hours funded childcare accounts where they also have an open Tax-Free Childcare account, this publication should not be used as the lead source for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare data.
Additionally, HMRC’s 15 or 30 hours data only shows where an account has been opened and is within its eligibility period. Not all of these families will necessarily be making use of the 15 or 30 hours offer. This is because the Tax-Free Childcare system allows parents to renew eligibility for a 30 hours account until the start of the term following the child’s 5th birthday — to ensure children who defer school entry are able to access 30 hours funded childcare.
In some cases, this may mean that the child retains an open 30 hours account in HMRC’s data, even though they have started school and will therefore be unable to use the 30 hours offer.
Government top-up and how it is calculated
For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.
The monthly and annual top-up amounts are the total top-up that the government has spent in this period. Annual totals are equal to the 12 months in the year. The monthly totals also include some backdated payments to families who did not initially receive their expected top-up.
Self-employed status
Self-employed parents were not eligible for childcare vouchers but are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. Statistics on self-employed users of TFC have been discontinued from the Tax-Free Childcare Statistics, June 2025 publication onwards, but are available in previous editions of the publication.
Disability flag
Children with a disability are defined according to a flag that exists on HMRC’s Tax-Free Childcare administrative data. HMRC has access to Department for Work and Pensions records to confirm where disability living allowance (DLA) or personal independence payments (PIP) are received for a child, or a child has a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI).
For monthly data, prior to April 2025, the latest record on a child’s disabled status was looked at the end of each calendar month. From April 2025, this was adjusted to look at any point within the calendar month.
For annual figures prior to the 2024 to 2025 financial year, monthly data sets were combined so that the annual numbers of disabled children, were those with an open or used account at any month in the year. For the March 2024 to April 2025 figures onwards, this calculation was adjusted slightly to include disability status at any point in the calendar year, rather than solely at the end of each calendar month.
Total open and used TFC accounts were added to in the Tables for the first time from April 2025, as the sum of those with TFC-only and joint 15 or 30 funded hours accounts. The used account total was previously included only in the commentary.
As described above, from April 2025, used account ‘total’, ‘TFC-only’ and ‘TFC and 15/30 hours’ used account figures for disabled children only include accounts that are ‘open’ according to the above definition when a payment was made (Table 3, Figure 3). Prior to April 2025, used account numbers included all accounts making payments.
Geographical allocation
In order to allocate a family to a region, parents’ details are linked to the postcode held on the HMRC central repository of address information. This data receives information from other HMRC tax and benefit administrative systems and from Department for Work and Pensions.
For annual data presented in Tables 8 to 13, a family’s latest available address record within the 12-month period is used. The sum of all regions in the tables may not equal the United Kingdom total because it has not been possible to allocate all families or children to a region. Families or children not allocated to a region are still counted within the United Kingdom total.
Regional breakdown monthly figures in Tables 6 and 7 are derived from postcode locations specific to the time of publication. These tables were first published in the December 2020 Tax-Free Childcare Statistics publication. For monthly data presented in Tables 6 and 7 from January 2021, postcode information was extracted soon after the end of the relevant quarter. For all months between April 2017 and October 2020, the postcode information used was extracted from administrative systems in September 2020.
This means that for all months before October 2020 accounts are displayed in the regions in which families were living in September 2020, so if a family was living in a different region before September 2020 this will not be reflected in the tables.
As described above, from April 2025, used account numbers broken down by region only include accounts that are ‘open’ according to the above definition when a payment was made, but prior to April 2025 included all accounts making payments (Tables 6 and 7).
Calculating children’s ages
Children’s ages are calculated using the child’s date of birth which HMRC holds on its administrative Tax-Free Childcare data. Ages are calculated on the last day of each calendar month, so where a child has a birthday in a particular month, they will be assigned to the older age category.
The sum of all ages in the tables may not equal the United Kingdom total if child date of birth information is not available. Children without a calculated age are still counted within the United Kingdom total.
As described above, from April 2025, used account numbers broken down by age only include accounts that ‘open’ according to the above definition when a payment was made, but prior to April 2025 included all accounts making payments (Table 5, Figures 4 and 5).