How to check if you’re owed for childcare costs with £23bn in benefits unclaimed
The cost of living is high..and rising.
With water, energy and council tax on the up, plus an increase in the national minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions on the way, price rises in sectors like hospitality and childcare are inevitable.
Sorry to break it to you, but “Awful April” is on the way.
While some people are forensically examining their budgets to see where they can reduce or eliminate expenses, many are simultaneously failing to claim the benefits available to them. This is especially true for the hundreds of thousands of parents who are failing to claim their full entitlement to family-related benefits.
According to a 2024 report by Policy in Practice, the estimated amount Great Britons are missing out on due to unclaimed benefits is £23 billion.
£1.7bn is from child benefit – the fourth most unclaimed benefi,t behind universal credit, pension credit and carer’s allowance.
Parents… you’re leaving money on the table. A lot of it. Here’s how much and how you can claim it through tax-free childcare, child benefit and childcare funded hours – which are worth thousands of pounds over a child’s lifetime.
Tax-Free Childcare
Introduced in 2017 is the unhelpfully named tax-free childcare. There’s nothing about this name that says, “this helps to pay for childcare costs” but that’s exactly what it does.
It’s a scheme for working parents where the government contributes towards childcare costs in approved settings like nurseries, childminders and afterschool clubs. Your child needs to be 11 or under and you can claim up to £2,000 per year. This increases to 16 or under and £4,000 per year if your child is disabled.
How does it work?
You need to set up an online account and for each £8 you pay into the account, you get a £2 government top up (or £4 if your child is disabled). You then pay your childcare provider directly from that account. There are income requirements – you and your partner, if you have one, need to be earning the equivalent of at least the national minimum wage for 16 hours a week and no more than an adjusted net income (ANI) of £100,000.
More details on how to calculate your ANI can be found here.
You can claim this alongside the 15 or 30 childcare funded hours (more on those below). However, if you’re already claiming other benefits, like universal credit or tax credits, accessing this scheme will stop them so speak to a benefits advisor before making a claim.
Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.
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Get a free fractional share worth up to £100.
Capital at risk.
Terms and conditions apply.
This underwent a significant makeover at the start of this tax year making even more people eligible. It’s an amount paid to anyone responsible for a child who is under 16 (or under 20 if they’re in approved education or training).
If eligible, you receive £25.60 per week for your eldest/only child and £16.95 per week for each other child. This equates to £1,331.20 per year for a family with one child and £2,212.60 per year for a family with two children. Rates will rise for 2025/26.
Crucially, you can claim for as many children as you have.
How does it work?
You can apply for this after you’ve registered your child’s birth and once approved, you’ll receive a payment into your bank account every four weeks.
You’re entitled to the full child benefit if you or another individual in your household earns an ANI of £60,000. If you earn between £60,000 and £80,000, you’re entitled to some of the child benefit and if your income exceeds £80,000, you’re not entitled to any. If your ANI exceeds £60,000, you’ll need to complete a self-assessment tax return and repay some or all of it.
You can check your entitlement and how much you may need to repay online here.
There are other reasons to claim too, such as so you automatically receive National Insurance credits while your child is under 12. These credits count towards your state pension, so you don’t have gaps in your record if you’re not working or earning enough to pay NI contributions. They can also be gifted to someone else who is looking after your children to help them top up their NI record.
You can claim and tick the box to say that you don’t want the payment (to save you completing a self-assessment) and you’ll still receive the credits.
An extra bonus is that some mortgage lenders will consider child benefit as income for mortgage affordability purposes.
Childcare funded hours (England only)
It’s a scheme is for working parents which gives you 570 hours of government-funded childcare at approved settings. Currently, all children between nine months and three years are entitled to 15 hours per week spread across a 38-week period (to mirror the school year). Many three- and four-year olds are also entitled to an extra 15 hours per week, bringing this to 30 hours per week in total.
From September 2025 this scheme will be expanded, resulting in most children from age nine months to when they start school being entitled to 30 hours per week of funded childcare hours.
How does it work?
You can apply online and once accepted, you’ll be given a code to give to your childcare setting. They’ll apply the relevant discount directly to your invoice. The criteria is very similar to the tax-free childcare scheme mentioned above but check online for full details.
There are three term start dates from which you can use the funded hours. Your child becomes eligible the term after they turn nine months (or age three for the 30 hours entitlement) and if you don’t provide the code to your childcare setting before the start of the relevant term, you have to wait until the start of the next term to access the funded hours.
Your setting may also charge you for additional aspects, as the funded hours cover the childcare element only – but not things like food or trips.
Childcare costs for families with young children are a huge part of their monthly budget – so using any government support available to help with those costs should be given serious consideration.
More details of each of the schemes above, and others, can be found on the Gov.UK.
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