Tax-Free Childcare and Free Hours Chooser 2026/27

Your childcare setup

Where do you live?

Household type

Child age in months

How many similar children are you checking?

Average annual approved childcare cost per child

Estimated provider hourly cost

Your age band

Your expected earnings over the next 3 months

Your adjusted net income

Partner adjusted net income

Partner age band

Partner expected earnings over the next 3 months

You are self-employed and started less than 12 months ago Partner is self-employed and started less than 12 months ago Child is disabled for childcare-support purposes Household is claiming Universal Credit childcare support Household still uses childcare vouchers

Optional note This chooser handles the standard income and age rules. Special leave or benefit exceptions can still make you eligible even if the simple earnings test here says no.

Likely best route from the details entered

Check the route mix Estimated annual Tax-Free Childcare top-up: £0

Estimated annual Tax-Free Childcare top-up£0

Headline annual value of working-parent free hours£0

Headline annual value of universal 15 hours£0

Minimum earnings test resultNot checked yet

Tax-Free ChildcareCheck inputs

30 hours for working parentsCheck inputs

Universal 15 hoursCheck inputs

What this means

Tax-Free Childcare and the England free-hours schemes overlap, but they are not the same thing. One gives a cash top-up into a childcare account, the other gives funded hours with an approved provider.

Check ANI first

How the chooser decides

For Tax-Free Childcare, the key tests are the child's age, whether each adult's adjusted net income is under £100,000, and whether each adult meets the minimum earnings rule or the new-self-employed exception. For England's 30 hours, the work and ANI logic is similar, but the child must be aged 9 months to 4 years.

Tax-Free Childcare cannot be claimed at the same time as childcare vouchers or Universal Credit childcare support.

All 3 to 4-year-olds in England can usually get 15 hours for 38 weeks a year, even if the working-parent route does not apply.

The free-hours value shown here is a headline estimate using the hourly cost you entered. Providers can still charge for extras or spread hours over more weeks.

Your childcare setup

What this means

How the chooser decides

Sources and assumptions