Frequently asked questions about childcare funding

Once you have your HMRC 11 digit eligibility code, you can create an account on Cambridgeshire County Council’s Citizen Portal. This is optional. In this account you can 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. This will allow 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. 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, contact the 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.

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. They will issue your code for you to take to the childcare provider.

You can take the funded early education and childcare flexibly. For example, your child could attend for three hours a day over five days, or five hours a day for three days in a week, or they could take the offer over two days. The provider will work with you to consider your child's needs, your preferred hours/days, and the sessions where they currently have vacancies. They will do their best to give you the hours you want, but it may not be possible to offer you exactly what you are seeking.

If, after talking it through, the provider is unable to care for your child at the times you want, you will need to find another provider.

You can also split your free hours between providers to provide cover that meets your needs.

After you agree on the hours or sessions for your child, you should sign a Parent/Carer Declaration with your childcare provider. This document clearly shows the agreed hours or sessions your child will attend. This helps in case of any dispute, especially about money or agreement the provider has with the council funding team.

Your provider has planned their provision to accommodate your child. They are not obliged to agree to a change without reasonable notice, or negotiation, unless circumstances are exceptional. If you need to change provider during the funding period (see ‘when you can claim’), please speak to your current provider about this first. You may be charged for the rest of the funding period if you move your child without an agreement to transfer funding. Funding will start again with your new provider at the start of the next funding period.

There should not be any additional or conditional charges made for claiming the free hours, such as top-up fees or uniform charges. Providers can charge for meals and snacks, consumables and optional activities as part of the funded entitlement delivery. Parents are not required to pay these as a condition of taking up their child's funded entitlement place. Where parents choose to purchase additional hours, or optional activities, this is a private arrangement between the provider and parent.

Providers can charge a deposit to parents to secure a place for their child. This deposit should be refunded once a child has taken up a place. Full details about the payment and refund of any deposit paid should be clearly stated in the provider’s information to parents.

Childcare costs are included in the calculations made by HMRC to ensure that you receive the right amount of credit that you are entitled to. If you already pay for childcare, and claim child tax credit to cover the cost, you must notify HMRC as soon as possible if taking up a funded place reduces the cost of your childcare by £10 or more a week. You do not need to notify HMRC if your cost does not change. For example if you use the funded childcare to increase the number of hours your child attends. You will always be better off taking up a funded place, as tax credits only contribute to part of the cost of childcare, and not all of it.

Further information on .gov.uk:

Help paying for childcare
Tax credits: working out your childcare costs
Tax credits calculator
EntitledTo benefits calculator

Funding will stop when they reach compulsory school age, the term of their fifth birthday, or once a child has accepted and taken up a Reception place, even if only on a part-time basis. For further details, please visit gov.uk.