Saving your clients money on childcare costs

You may have heard about the changes to Government support for childcare, with a Tax-Free Childcare Scheme slowly being introduced to replace childcare vouchers. Although childcare vouchers are now unavailable, those who were already part of the voucher scheme will still have access to them. For those starting to obtain support, this can only be done through the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme.

Under the previous government scheme, self-employed individuals and partners in partnerships were never able to benefit. Under this new scheme, they will now be eligible.

Currently, only 250,000 out of 1.5 million families are benefiting from this, meaning there's a chance that your clients aren't claiming this.

Tax-Free Childcare Scheme

Tax-Free Childcare is the government scheme for support on childcare cost. It was slowly rolled out in April 2017, and is available to working parents, including the self-employed, with children aged 0 to 11.

Eligible parents can get up to £2,000 per child per year towards qualifying childcare. So those parents with 2 children could see a £4,000 saving per year on the family’s budget. For every £80 paid in by the parent, HMRC pay in another £20 to be used on eligible childcare costs.

Eligibility criteria

Your clients can qualify if they:

• Are employed or self-employed
• Earn at least £120 a week
• Are aged 25 or older
• Are responsible for a child under the age of 11

What can the funds be used on?

The funds can be used on a wide range of registered childcare, including:

• Nurseries
• Childminders
• Breakfast clubs, after school clubs and holiday clubs.

The scheme is available up to the age of 16 for disabled children with an increased maximum government contribution of £4,000 per child per year.

How Haines Watts Leeds can help

To find out how we can help you with business advice and helping to put plans in place to get your employees on schemes like this, get in touch today.