Island families are set to benefit from the government’s extension of tax-free childcare, which now includes support for children up to the age of 9.
In April 2017 HM Revenue and Customs started rolling out Tax-Free Childcare, which helps working parents with the cost of childcare with up to £2,000 of support per child per year, or £4,000 for disabled children.
Tax-Free Childcare has now opened to parents whose youngest child is under 9. The scheme will open to all remaining eligible families with children under 12 on 14th February 2018, meaning all eligible parents will be able to apply for Tax-Free Childcare before the end of this financial year.
Parents, including the self-employed, can apply online for Tax-Free Childcare by visiting Childcare Choices. Parents can also access the government’s childcare calculator through Childcare Choices, which helps parents to choose which government childcare support is best for them.
Since opening the childcare service, through which parents apply for 30 hours free childcare (England only) and Tax-Free Childcare, more than 325,000 customers have successfully applied and are now using the service. Of these, more than 170,000 have a Tax-Free Childcare account.
