Official Statistics

Tax-Free Childcare Statistics Commentary December 2024

Published 26 February 2025

1. About this release

This is a quarterly publication of Tax-Free Childcare statistics. Tax-Free Childcare provides help with childcare costs for working parents.

For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.

Tax-Free Childcare is replacing the childcare voucher and directly contracted childcare schemes, which closed to new entrants in October 2018.

For more information about Tax-Free Childcare see the summary information in Annex 1 or visit guidance on Tax-Free Childcare on GOV.UK.

Publication Information

This is an official statistics publication. Statistical tables to accompany this commentary are available in the accompanying spreadsheet

Coverage: United Kingdom

Frequency of release: Quarterly

Next Release: May 2025

For queries or feedback on this publication, please contact TFC.statistics.enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk

For press and media queries, please contact HMRC Press Office

2. Summary

Key points from this release covering the period to 31 December 2024 are:

• in October 2024, this quarter’s peak, approximately 542,000 families used Tax-Free Childcare for 657,000 children, with the government spending £49.7 million on TFC top-up
• in 2024, 15 hours funded childcare became available for children aged 9 months to 2 years (see What’s new? Childcare Choices). A combined application process for the TFC and DfE funded childcare schemes has led to an increased number of open TFC accounts for children aged 0, 1 and 2
• while the number of families using TFC was broadly consistent with recent quarters, spending on TFC top-up was lower; the government spent £148.5 million on top-up this quarter, £11.2 million less than last quarter and £6.2 million less than the same period in 2023. This coincides with increased funded childcare availability

3. Families and children using Tax-Free Childcare

Both the number of families and children using Tax-Free Childcare increased in October 2024, before decreasing in November and rising slightly in December.

Previously, the amount spent on TFC top-up has generally increased in line with the number of families using TFC. This quarter has seen a reduction in the average TFC spend per family.

Figure 1: Families using TFC accounts and government top-up paid (£m), by month

Figure 1 shows the number of families using Tax-Free Childcare accounts each month and total monthly government top-up. Key points of note from Figure 1 are:

• account use increased in October 2024, peaking at 542,000 families using Tax-Free Childcare for 657,000 children, before decreasing slightly in November 2024 and rising slightly in December 2024
• this peak is broadly consistent with the previous 2 quarterly peaks (with 545,000 families using Tax-Free Childcare for 664,000 children in April 2024, and 545,000 families for 662,000 children in July 2024)
• account use and government top-up typically varies by month. This can be due to school holidays, the number of payment days in a month and the day of the week on which a month ends (see Section 8, Figures 10 and 11)
• excepting monthly variability, the number of families using a Tax-Free Childcare account and government spending on top-up have steadily increased since launch with the exception of the period following March 2020, when the first COVID-19 lockdown began
• a steep rise in families using TFC in September and October follows a large decrease in use in August over the summer holiday period, during which account use fell to 453,000 families
• government top-up did not increase to the same extent following the summer holiday period; the government spent £148.5 million on top-up this quarter, £11.2 million less than last quarter and £6.2 million less than the same period in 2023 (see Figure 2)
• changes in account use and spending are expected with the rollout of 15 and 30 hours funded childcare for children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive). See What’s new? Childcare Choices

Figure 2: Government top-up (£) per family used account, by month

Figure 2 shows government TFC top-up amount averaged by the number of families using TFC each month. Key points of note from Figure 2 are:

• from 2021 to August 2024, following the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown period, average top-up per family consistently remained between £100 and £120
• while the number of families and children using TFC remained high this quarter (Figure 1), the amount spent on top-up per family decreased, falling to £89 in November 2024, its lowest level since the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown period (see Section 8, Figures 10 and 11)
• this reduction in average spend is likely driven by the increased availability of 15 hours funded childcare introduced in 2024 for children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive)

4. Self-employed users of Tax-Free Childcare

Self-employed parents are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare but are not entitled to use childcare vouchers.

The number of families with a self-employed parent using Tax-Free Childcare have generally increased in line with all families, and post-2020 lockdowns have remained at a consistent percentage of all families using TFC.

Figure 3: Number and percentage of families with a used TFC account where at least one parent is self-employed

Figure 3 shows the number of Tax-Free Childcare users in families with at least one self-employed (SE) parent. Key points of note from Figure 3 are:

• the number of used Tax-Free Childcare accounts in families with at least one SE parent increased in October 2024, from 66,600 to 71,200, before slightly decreasing in November 2024, and again in December 2024. This is consistent with families using TFC as a whole (Figure 1)
• since the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown period, the percentage of used accounts with a SE parent has stabilised at around 13%, and remained so this quarter

5. Disabled children using Tax-Free Childcare

Disabled children are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare up to the age of 16 and can get up to a maximum of £4,000 top-up per year. Families with a disabled child have been able to apply for Tax-Free Childcare since its launch in April 2017.

TFC accounts where the child is disabled have gradually risen over time since 2021, both in number and as a percentage of all used TFC accounts.

Figure 4: Number and percentage of used TFC accounts where the child is disabled

Figure 4 shows the number of disabled children with a used Tax-Free Childcare account and disabled children as a percentage of all children with used accounts. Key points of note from Figure 4 are:

• following similar trends to TFC users overall, account use for children with disabilities increased in October 2024, from 5,900 to 6,500, before decreasing slightly in November 2024 and rising slightly in December 2024
• since early 2021, the percentage of accounts where a child is disabled steadily increased, rising from 0.6% in February 2021 to a peak of 1.04% in July 2024 and remaining at around 1% this quarter

6. Account use by age of child

TFC is available for all children aged 11 and under and children aged 16 and under with a disability.

Account use has generally increased across all age groups since the introduction of TFC in 2017, but trends in TFC use have varied by age

Figure 5: Children aged 0 to 4 using TFC accounts, by month and age of child

Figure 6: Children aged 5 to 16 using TFC accounts, by month and age of child

Figure 5 shows the number of children aged 0 to 4 using Tax-Free Childcare accounts by month and age of child, while Figure 6 shows the same for children aged 5 years and over. Key points of note from Figures 5 and 6 are:

• for children aged 0, account use increased very slightly in October 2024 to 14,700 before declining in November and December
• for children aged 1 to 3, account use increased in October 2024 before decreasing in November 2024, and rising again in December
• from 2021, the underlying trend in most age groups has been a general increase in the number of children with used accounts. Children aged 1 were an exception to this, increasing very little or decreasing from late 2022. This quarter, used accounts have risen again, exceeding the previous March 2023 peak
• children aged 2 became eligible for 15 hours funded childcare in April 2024 and account use has remained consistently lower for this age group following this point
• account use in children aged 3 reached 133,000 in December 2024, higher than any previous month
• account use for children aged 4 increased in October, November and December 2024. Account use for children aged 4 follows a distinct seasonal pattern relating to children starting school
• children aged between 5 and 10 accounts showed similar monthly trends in account use, slightly increasing in October 2024, before decreasing in November and December
• account use for children aged 11 and over increased in October, November and December 2024
• in general, the number of children aged 5 and above with used Tax-Free Childcare accounts is substantially lower than those aged 0 to 4 years. One likely factor is that children of school age generally have lower childcare costs and hence, parents are less incentivised to take up Tax-Free Childcare

7. Percentage of open accounts which are used

Not all Tax-Free Childcare accounts that are opened are used. Reasons for this include:

• some families will open an account for a child and then decide not to use it
• some families will open a Tax-Free Childcare account for one child which they go on to use, and at the same time, open accounts for other children in the family which are not used
• government funded 15 or 30 hours funded childcare and Tax-Free Childcare follow a joint application process; many families find that they are also eligible for Tax-Free Childcare and an account is opened for them, which they may not use
• not all Tax-Free Childcare accounts are used each month. For example, at the start of a school term, a family might make a payment for the whole period

Figure 7: Percentage of open, child-level TFC accounts which are used, by month

Figure 7 shows the percentage of open accounts which are used each month. Key points of note from Figure 7 are:

• account use increased sharply from 43.8% in September 2024 to 47.8% in October 2024. It fell in November 2024, before rising slightly in December 2024 to 46.4%
• used accounts as a percentage of open accounts for each month from August to December 2024 was lower than the same months in 2023 and 2022
• this is driven by an increased number of open but unused accounts for children aged 1 and 2, who became eligible for 15 hours funded childcare in September and April 2024 respectively (see Section 8; Figure 9)

8. Additional charts – expanding funded childcare availability and how it is affecting Tax-Free Childcare

The DfE childcare expansion offered 15 hours funded childcare to children aged 2 in April 2024 and children aged 9 months and older in September 2024, with further expansion of 30 hours funded childcare for all children aged 9 months to 4 years (inclusive) due in September 2025.

The DfE expansion has had 2 main impacts on TFC as a result of increased availability of funded childcare: an increase in the number of open accounts as a result of a joint application process, and a decrease in average spend on TFC top-up.

In previous quarters, the number of TFC accounts that are open for children aged 0, 1 and 2, increased in advance of 15 hours funded childcare availability This is because the DfE scheme requires application in advance. This quarter, the number of open accounts remained stable.

The proportion of families overall with TFC accounts that are used and joined to a DfE 15 or 30 hours funded childcare account increased from 46% in December 2023 to 74% in December 2024.

The number of TFC accounts has generally increased year on year since 2021, accompanied by a proportional increase in government top-up amount (Figure 1, Figure 2). While account use remains higher in 2024 than previous years, government top-up has not increased to the same extent.

Figure 8: Children aged 0, 1 and 2 with open TFC accounts, by month

Figure 8 shows the number of children aged 0 to 2 years with open Tax-Free Childcare accounts by month and age of child. Key points of note from Figure 8 are:

• following a sharp increase last quarter, open accounts for children aged 1 have remained relatively stable between 198,000 and 199,000 this quarter. This follows a similar trend in children aged 2, who became eligible for 15 hours funded childcare in April 2024
• children aged 0, which include some children eligible for 15 hours funded childcare, similarly showed a sharp increase in open accounts last quarter, before decreasing to 33,200 in October 2024 and remaining relatively stable
• open accounts for children aged 2 showed a slight decrease this quarter, falling to 235,000 in December 2024

Figure 9: Percentage of open accounts for children aged 1 and 2, which are used, by month

Figure 9 shows the percentage of open accounts for children aged 1 and 2, which are used, each month. Key points of note from Figure 9 are:

• from April 2021, the percentage of open accounts that are used for children aged 1 or 2 varied by month, but remained relatively stable between 79% and 81%
• in advance of the introduction of 15 hours funded childcare for these age groups in April and September 2024, increases in open accounts resulted in a reduction in the percentages of accounts that were used
• this quarter, percentages for both age groups remained relatively stable and broadly aligned, between 59% and 64% each month
• percentages of accounts that are used for children aged 1 and 2 remain higher than percentage account use for all children (Figure 7)

Figure 10: Number of children with used accounts by month and year from 2021

Figure 11: Government top-up paid (£m), by month and year from 2021

Figure 10 shows the number of children with used accounts each month split by year. Figure 11 shows total government top-up. Key points of note from Figures 10 and 11 are:

• the total number of children with used accounts shows a seasonal trend, for example typically declining in August and December during school holiday periods, but has increased overall each year since 2021
• these trends were less consistent in 2024. This quarter, there was an unexpected uptick in account use in December from 628,000 to 639,000. This likely results from November ending on a weekend and payments being carried forward
• government top-up shows similar monthly variability as account use while also generally increasing year on year
• in several months in 2024, including in October and November this quarter, government spend on TFC top-up was lower than the same period in 2023, while the number of used accounts increased. This reflects an increase in the number of children receiving TFC, but a lower per child spend on average (see Section 3, Figures 1 and 2)

Annex 1 – Background to Tax-Free Childcare

Tax-Free Childcare was launched to the public in April 2017 with a phased rollout by age of the youngest child in a family, completed in February 2018. The full rollout schedule is shown below.

Comparisons should not be made between months before March 2018, when initial rollout was complete, and more recent months. Since the rollout was phased by age of the youngest child in a family, older children appearing in the tables may have joined Tax-Free Childcare before their apparent rollout date.

A key factor in monthly usage is the number of working days within the month. A working day is defined as a weekday but excludes any national holidays. Further, seasonal variation also has an impact, such as lower usage during the August summer holidays. Each of these factors causes a degree of fluctuation from month to month but does not affect long-term trends.

Children must be aged 11 and under, or 16 and under if they have a disability, to be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. Families with a disabled child up to the age of 16 were able to sign up for Tax-Free Childcare in April 2017.

Tax-Free Childcare rollout dates by age of youngest child

Age	Date eligible
0 to 3 years	21 April 2017
4 years	June 2017
5 years	24 November 2017
6 to 8 years	15 January 2018
9 to 11 years	14 February 2018

For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.

Tax-Free Childcare is run by HMRC with their delivery partners National Savings and Investments. Accounts are fully online for the large majority of users. Parents pay into and make payments to childcare providers out of the same account. Parents are able to withdraw money for other purposes but lose the government top-up on anything removed.

An individual family may register for a Tax-Free Childcare account for multiple children. Separated or divorced parents cannot register an account separately for the same child.

In order to qualify for Tax-Free Childcare, families must have all adults earning the equivalent of at least the national minimum or living wage for 16 hours per week and can’t have income over £100,000 a year. They must not be claiming tax credits or universal credit in any form or other disqualifying benefits such as Job Seeker’s Allowance.

Since September 2017, families in England have also been able to use the government’s offer of 30 hours funded weekly childcare for children aged 3 or 4. Families can access this offer provided all parents are earning at least the equivalent of the national minimum or living wage for 16 hours a week, and don’t have a taxable income over £100,000 annually.

Unlike Tax-Free Childcare, families are eligible for 15 or 30 funded childcare hours if they receive tax credits or universal credit or childcare vouchers. Applications for both TFC and the DfE funded childcare scheme are linked and accessed through the same online portal.

When a family applies for 30 hours funded childcare and also meets the additional eligibility criteria for Tax-Free Childcare, a Tax-Free Childcare account is often opened, and vice versa. This leads to a discrepancy between ‘open’ and ‘used’ Tax-Free Childcare accounts which can be seen in the tables accompanying this publication.

From April 2024, this offer was expanded to also include 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 2 years of eligible working parents. This was followed up by 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 9 months of eligible working parents in September 2024, and this will increase to 30 hours in September 2025.

Tax-Free Childcare is replacing the childcare voucher and directly contracted childcare schemes, which closed to new entrants in October 2018. Tax-Free Childcare is available to families where one or more parents are self-employed. This is different to the employer supported childcare schemes, which are only available from some employers.

With childcare vouchers, a basic rate taxpayer can salary sacrifice up to £55 per week, with a maximum benefit of £933 per year per parent, whilst a higher rate payer can get up to £28 a week in vouchers.

Whether a family is better off under Tax-Free Childcare or childcare vouchers will depend on their circumstances.

Following the closure of childcare vouchers, parents who change employer and new parents are no longer able to receive childcare vouchers but may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. This should lead to an increase in take up of Tax-Free Childcare in the longer term, as these families look for childcare support.

Whether a family can access Tax-Free Childcare may also depend on their preferred childcare provider. Childcare providers need to be signed up to Tax-Free Childcare before a family can make payments to them.

Annex 2 – Glossary and methodological notes

Open account

An open Tax-Free Childcare account is one where a family has met the eligibility criteria and is within their eligibility period according to data held by HMRC on their administrative systems.

The eligibility period is the period in which families receive top-up on any payments made through their account and usually lasts around 3 months. At the end of this period families are required to reconfirm their eligibility, and the period starts anew.

For the purposes of these statistics, monthly open account figures in Table 1 are calculated as the number of families with an open account on the last day of each calendar month. A similar calculation is done for Table 2 but counting the number of children.

Annual open account figures in Tables 1 and 2 are calculated as the numbers with an open account on the last day of any of the 12 months April to March.

Using this measure, families or children are likely to have open accounts in multiple months but will only be counted once in the annual figures. This means that the annual number of open accounts will not equal the sum of the 12 months in the year.

Used account

A used account is one where a payment is made from the account to a childcare provider within the month or year according to transactions data provided to HMRC by National Savings and Investments.

For Table 1 this is calculated as the number of families making a payment in the period. For Table 2 it is calculated as the number of children whose parents make a payment to a childcare provider on the child’s behalf.

Because families or children have used accounts in multiple months this means that the annual number of used accounts will not equal the sum of the 12 months in the year.

From April 2024 a minor change has been made to how the counting is done for used accounts in Tables 1 and 2. Accounts that were no longer live at the end of the month have been excluded from the TFC only and TFC and 30 hours funded childcare figures, however, are still included in the totals. This change applies to April 2024 onwards, but not to previously published periods.

Identifying a child and a family

Families who register for Tax-Free Childcare are assigned a unique claim identifier within HMRC’s internal data. Children whose parents register are also given a unique identifier. It is therefore possible to link data across multiple children where they belong to the same family.

The relationship between Tax-Free Childcare and 30 and 15 hours funded childcare

In September 2017 the government launched its offer of 30 funded hours of childcare in England for children aged 3 and 4 (although parents were able to apply for and therefore open a 30 hours account from April 2017).

From April 2024, this offer was expanded to also include 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 2 years of eligible working parents. This was followed up by 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 9 months of eligible working parents in September 2024, which will subsequently increase to 30 hours in September 2025.

Parents apply and have their eligibility checked for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare via the childcare service, the online application for Tax-Free Childcare and funded childcare. If a parent is found to be eligible, they will be given a 15 or 30 hours eligibility code.

A parent should take this code along with their national insurance number and their child’s date of birth to their chosen childcare provider. The provider will either directly, or via their local authority, use the Department for Education’s Eligibility Checking System (ECS) to confirm the validity of the code.

Once the funded hours eligibility code has been validated via the ECS, the child will be able to take up their 15 or 30 hours place.

In applying for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare, many families find that they are also eligible for Tax-Free Childcare and a Tax-Free Childcare account is often also opened for them. This contributes to the discrepancy between open and used Tax-Free Childcare accounts that is seen in the data in the tables accompanying this release.

For this reason, used accounts are considered as the best measure of take up of Tax-Free Childcare.

How the figures for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare in this publication differ from other sources

Department for Education publish their own data on the numbers of children benefiting from funded early education, including those in a 15 or 30 hours place. Statistics about education provision for children under 5 years of age are published by DfE on GOV.UK

Because Tax-Free Childcare statistics only publishes numbers of open 15 or 30 hours funded childcare accounts where they also have an open Tax-Free Childcare account, this publication should not be used as the lead source for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare data.

Additionally, HMRC’s 15 or 30 hours data only shows where an account has been opened and is within its eligibility period. Not all of these families will necessarily be making use of the 15 or 30 hours offer.

This is because the Tax-Free Childcare system allows parents to renew eligibility for a 30 hours account until the start of the term following the child’s 5th birthday - to ensure children who defer school entry are able to access 30 hours funded childcare.

In some cases, this may mean that the child retains an open 30 hours account in HMRC’s data, even though they have started school and will therefore be unable to use the 30 hours offer.

Government top-up and how it is calculated

For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.

The monthly and annual top-up amounts are the total top-up that the government has spent in this period. Annual totals are equal to the 12 months in the year. The monthly totals also include some backdated payments to families who did not initially receive their expected top-up.

Self-employed status

Self-employed parents were not eligible for childcare vouchers but are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. Families with a self-employed parent are defined according to a flag that exists on HMRC’s Tax-Free Childcare administrative data. This is based on details provided by parents during their application, including their unique taxpayer reference (UTR).

For monthly data, the latest record on a parent’s self-employed status is looked at the end of each calendar month. For annual data, the monthly data sets are combined so that the annual number of families with a self-employed parent and open or used account, are any families with a self-employed parent and open or used account in any of the months in the year.

This method reflects the fact that parents may change whether they are self-employed throughout the year.

Disability flag

Children with a disability are defined according to a flag that exists on HMRC’s Tax-Free Childcare administrative data. HMRC has access to Department for Work and Pensions records to confirm where disability living allowance (DLA) or personal independence payments (PIP) are received for a child, or a child has a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI).

For monthly data, the latest record on a child’s disabled status is looked at the end of each calendar month. For annual data, the monthly data sets are combined so that the annual number of disabled children with an open or used account, are those with an open or used account at any month in the year.

Geographical allocation

In order to allocate a family to a region, parents’ details are linked to the postcode held on the HMRC central repository of address information. This data receives information from other HMRC tax and benefit administrative systems and from Department for Work and Pensions.

For annual data presented in Tables 7 to 12, a family’s latest available address record within the 12-month period is used. The sum of all regions in the tables may not equal the United Kingdom total because it has not been possible to allocate all families or children to a region. Families or children not allocated to a region are still counted within the United Kingdom total.

For monthly data presented in Tables 13 and 14, postcode information is extracted soon after the end of the quarter (for the quarter January to March 2024 postcodes were extracted from administrative systems at the start of April 2024). This methodology will be followed for future time periods.

The methodology used in Tables 13 and 14 is different for months prior to January 2021. Tables 13 and 14 were first published in February 2021 including outturn to December 2020. For all months between April 2017 and October 2020 the postcode information used was extracted from administrative systems in September 2020.

This means that for all months before October 2020 accounts are displayed in the regions in which families were living in September 2020, so if a family was living in a different region before September 2020 this will not be reflected in the tables.

Calculating children’s ages

Children’s ages are calculated using the child’s date of birth which HMRC holds on its administrative Tax-Free Childcare data. Ages are calculated on the last day of each calendar month, so where a child has a birthday in a particular month, they will be assigned to the older age category.

The sum of all ages in the tables may not equal the United Kingdom total if child date of birth information is not available. Children without a calculated age are still counted within the United Kingdom total.

Revisions

No revisions have been made this quarter.