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Childcare entitlement for working parents

Childcare entitlements for working parents

From September 2024 working parents of 9 months - 3 years old can get up to 15 hours a week of funded early education and childcare. This is for 38 weeks per year or the hours can be spread over the full year (570 hours in total). Applications are now open. For more information please visit Childcare Choices.

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Working parents who meet the eligibility criteria of 3-4 year olds can claim up to 30 hours of childcare per week.

  • The funded hours are up to 570 hours a year.
  • This is 15 hours over 38 weeks or fewer hours per week for more weeks in the year.
  • This can be taken at registered settings or childcare providers or across more than one setting.
  • There is an eligibility criteria and it is essential that parents reconfirm eligibility every 3 months.

The application process above is managed by HMRC. Their Childcare Choices website also offers a comparison guide for all the ways you can reduce childcare costs. The HMRC Childcare Choices helpline number is 0300 123 4097.

  • Once you have confirmed your eligibility with HMRC, you can start claiming from the beginning of the next funding period, ie 1 April, 1 September or 1 January.

  • The deadline for receiving your HMRC Code is the last day of the month, before the next funding period starts. For example to access extended entitlement from 1 January the code you receive from HMRC must be dated on, or before, 31 December. If you apply for and are eligible but are not issued with an HMRC Code by 31 December, the extended funding entitlement will be available from the following funding period 1 April.

  • If you are eligible you'll get an 11 digit eligibility code. You will need to keep this safe, as you will need to provide this to your childcare provider to access your place along with your child's date of birth and your national insurance number. 

  • Every three months, you'll need to reconfirm that you're still eligible for the extended entitlement. HMRC will send a reminder four weeks before the deadline. You don't need to update your provider every time you reconfirm, however please notify your provider if you are no longer eligible.

  • You can also create an optional account on our Citizen Portal (Cambridgeshire County Council) to help manage your funding requests and view your funding period, see ‘Citizen Portal’ FAQ below.

    When your child turns 2 When you can get 15 hours funding from Recommended time to apply
    1 April to 31 August 2023 term starting on or after 1 April 2024 January to March 2024
    1 September to 31 December 2023 term starting on or after 1 April 2024 January to March 2024
    1 January to 31 March 2024 term starting on or after 1 April 2024 January to March 2024
    1 April to 31 August 2024 term starting on or after 1 September 2024 June to August 2024

Grace period

The grace period enables parents to retain their childcare place for a short period if they become ineligible for 30 hours following the reconfirmation process. This applies to the 15 hours extended entitlement for 3 year olds.

Date parent receives ineligible decision Grace period end date
1 January - 10 February 31 March
11 February - 31 March 31 August
1 April - 26 May 31 August
27 May - 31 August 31 December
22 October - 31 December 31 March

Children aged 9 months to 2 years accessing the Working Parent Entitlements but who fall out of eligibility, will mean parents will have to pay for their childcare. However, there may be other support for childcare costs at Childcare choices.

Choosing a childcare provider

You will need to choose one or more eligible childcare providers that have the capacity to offer you a childcare place/s for the hours you need. Visit our Childcare Information page where you can search for local provision and look at the types of childcare available. You can find local childcare providers in the Childcare Directory.

Additional charges may apply for certain services at specific childcare providers, and not all entitlements may be available at all times of day. Please check with providers for any restrictions or additional charges.

Frequently asked questions

Once you have your HMRC 11 digit eligibility code, you can optionally create an account on Cambridgeshire County Council’s Citizen Portal. Within this account you can then view the exact dates for when the funding applies and receive reminders when it is due to expire.

You can also share your information with childcare providers. The provider will not get a notification or be aware you have shared your data until you tell them. They can then look up this information allowing for quicker and more accurate checks of your eligible funding period to make securing a place easier.

  • The Citizen Portal account does not replace the need to have an HMRC Childcare account, or to update it every three months.
  • If you have any queries about the Extended Entitlement, your code or anything relating to your own details with HMRC, please contact HMRC on 0300 123 4097.

You will be required to create a Citizen Portal account to apply for a school place, so creating one now for childcare funding, will speed up your school place application as you will already have an account with your personal details populated.

Please take a look at the national eligibility criteria and exceptions on gov.uk. The online checks are managed by HMRC. If you are having difficulties, you should contact their Childcare Service helpline on 0300 123 4097 for further information and assistance regarding your application. 

Contact HMRC's Childcare Service on 0300 123 4097 for further information and assistance regarding your application or re-confirmation.

You will need to visit the gov.uk website and sign into your childcare account. From here you can click on secure messages to see a copy of the code you received.

If you have been unable to access Tax-Free Childcare through your childcare account for technical reasons, you may be able to claim compensation. Please visit Gov.uk to check if you are eligible for compensation and details on how to make a claim. 

As long as you do not claim more than the number of hours you are entitled to, you can claim from both. Each child's funded hours can be split between up to three different providers (maximum of two sites in a single day). We can only fund Ofsted registered childcare providers (including registered childminders). We cannot fund any other types of care, including family arrangements. If a relative or friend looks after your child during the week, they can't be paid the free early years funding.

If either or both of the child's parents stop working at any point, after a short grace period to support you to find a new job, the child will stop being eligible for the working parent entitlement. This also applies to other changes to circumstances which affect eligibility.

Every three months, you'll need to reconfirm that you're still eligible for the working parent entitlement.

Childcare providers have flexibility to choose how they offer the additional hours and term time only provision meets the requirements in the statutory guidance from the Department for Education. Although it may not meet your specific needs, you can explore alternative options for the provision of the whole entitlement across the year, or split the funded hours between more than one childcare provider, to create a more flexible package of childcare.

Date of starting or returning to work When can you apply from When can you access your entitlement from

1 October to 31 January

 1 September to 31 December 

1 January

1 February to 30 April

1 January to 31 March

1 April

1 May to 30 September

1 April to 31 August

 1 September 

Funded entitlement hours can cover a lunch time period.  When this occurs there may be a charge for lunch or snack.  Any charges must be agreed with you in advance. If you do not want to pay this charge the provider must give you the choice to either bring a packed lunch, bring your own snack, or allow you to take your child out of the setting over the lunch period.

The national online childcare service is unable to make the additional checks required for foster carers.

Eligibility criteria

  • Working parent hours are integral to the child’s care plan
  • AND where there is a single foster parent family, the foster parent is engaged in paid work outside their role as a foster parent
  • OR where there are two foster parents in the same fostering household, both are engaging in paid work outside their role as a foster parent.

To apply for working parent entitlement you must first contact your social worker. If it is agreed that the additional childcare is in the best interest of the child and is consistent to the child’s plan your social worker will provide the application form. The social care team will then check and sign off the application and send it to the Education Welfare Benefits team who will issue your code for you to take to the childcare provider.