30 Hours Free Childcare and Tax-Free Childcare Calculator

Childcare is one of the biggest costs for UK families, and two government schemes can cut it: free childcare hours and Tax-Free Childcare. Working parents in England can often use both at the same time. This calculator estimates what you would pay after both, based on your income, your children's ages and what your nursery or childminder charges. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you enter is stored.

Free childcare hours are funded by the government and paid straight to your provider. In England, eligible working parents can get 30 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year for children from 9 months old until they start school. That is 1,140 hours a year, which some providers spread over the whole year. All 3 and 4 year olds get a universal 15 hours a week whether or not their parents work.

Tax-Free Childcare tops up what you pay a provider. For every £8 you pay into a childcare account, the government adds £2, up to £2,000 a year for each child (or £4,000 for a disabled child). The top-up applies to childcare costs that are not already covered by free hours, so you use the free hours first and Tax-Free Childcare for the rest. It covers children up to 11, and up to 16 for disabled children, and it is available across the UK.

Each parent (or the single parent) must expect to earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage. At the 2026/27 National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour for people aged 21 and over, that is £203.36 a week, or about £10,575 a year. Lower thresholds apply to younger workers. Neither parent can have an adjusted net income above £100,000. Adjusted net income is your taxable income minus pension contributions and Gift Aid donations, so paying into a pension can bring someone back under the limit. See our guide to the £100k tax trap.

Self-employed parents can qualify based on expected earnings, and newly self-employed parents are exempt from the minimum earnings rule for the first 12 months. A parent on maternity, paternity or sick leave can usually keep the support. If one parent does not work, such as a stay-at-home parent, the household usually does not qualify for the working-parent schemes, apart from the universal 15 hours for 3 and 4 year olds.

In the first example the free hours cover £9,120 of a £15,360 bill, and Tax-Free Childcare adds 20% of the rest. A baby under 9 months gets no free hours, so Tax-Free Childcare does most of the work, but the top-up is capped at £2,000 a year per child. The final example shows the cost of crossing £100,000: the household loses the 30 hours and the top-up and keeps only the universal 15 hours for a 3 year old.

You can use free hours and Tax-Free Childcare together. You cannot use Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as the childcare element of Universal Credit, Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit, or employer childcare vouchers, because you must choose one route. If you receive Universal Credit, compare the two using our Universal Credit calculator, because UC can pay up to 85% of childcare costs and is sometimes worth more than the 20% top-up for lower earners.

Apply for both schemes through your childcare account on GOV.UK. If you are eligible for the 30 hours you get a code that you give to your provider, and you must reconfirm your eligibility every three months or the code can lapse. Tax-Free Childcare is paid into a government-held account, and you pay your provider from it. Apply for 30 hours in the term before your child becomes eligible, as the code usually has to be in place before the term starts. Check how your provider handles extras, because meals, nappies and trips are often charged separately even when the hours are funded.

The 30-hours scheme described here is for England. Scotland offers 1,140 funded hours to all 3 and 4 year olds and some 2 year olds, Wales runs the Childcare Offer for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds, and Northern Ireland has its own arrangements. Tax-Free Childcare is a UK-wide scheme and works the same in all four nations.

Yes. Use the free hours first, then Tax-Free Childcare for the remaining cost, for example for extra days, holiday clubs or after-school care.

You lose access to the 30 hours and Tax-Free Childcare for working parents once either parent has adjusted net income above £100,000. Pension contributions and Gift Aid lower adjusted net income, which can bring you back under the limit.

Yes, £2,000 a year for each child under 12, or £4,000 for a disabled child under 17. That is a government contribution of 20% of your childcare costs up to £10,000 a year per child.

Yes. You must confirm your details every three months for both the 30-hours code and Tax-Free Childcare, or the support can be withdrawn.

Sources: GOV.UK: Get free childcare if you're working, GOV.UK: Tax-Free Childcare and the 2026 National Living Wage announcement. This tool gives estimates, not advice; check eligibility on GOV.UK before relying on it.