Official Statistics

Tax-Free Childcare Statistics Commentary September 2024

Published 27 November 2024

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: February 2025

For queries or feedback on this publication, please contact:

• TFC.statistics.enquiries@hmrc.gov.uk

For press queries, please contact:

• Media contact: HMRC Press Office - news.desk@hmrc.gov.uk

2. Summary

The key points from this release covering the period to 30 September 2024 are:

• approximately 545,000 families used Tax-Free Childcare for 662,000 children in July 2024, this quarter’s peak, which compares to 545,000 families using Tax-Free Childcare for 664,000 children in April 2024, last quarter’s peak
• the government spent £159.7 million on top-up for families this quarter, £5.1 million less than last quarter. This notably coincides with the expansion of Department for Education (DfE) free childcare scheme, with two-year-olds and nine-month-olds being eligible for 15 hours free childcare from April and September 2024 respectively. See Upcoming changes to childcare support
• the proportion of used TFC accounts that are joined to a DfE free childcare account has increased from 46% in December 2023 to 74% in September 2024 as a result of the DfE childcare expansion rollout and a combined application process for both schemes

3. Families and children using Tax-Free Childcare

Both the number of families and children using Tax-Free Childcare increased in July 2024, before decreasing in August 2024 and rising again in September 2024.

Consistent with previous years, account use declined in August during the school summer holiday period.

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. The key points to note from Figure 1 are:

• account use and government top-up increased in July 2024, before decreasing in August 2024, and rising again in September 2024, although not to the peak level seen in the previous quarter
• account use and government top-up amounts are subject to monthly fluctuations. Fluctuations 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
• looking at long-term trends, the number of families using a Tax-Free Childcare account has generally increased since launch with the exception of during COVID-19 lockdowns. Figures from this quarter may indicate a change in this trend; while account use typically decreases in August, the number of used accounts remained lower in September than at the start of the quarter

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.

Figure 2: Families with a used Tax-Free Childcare account where at least one parent is Self-Employed, number and percentage of overall used accounts

Figure 2 shows the number of Tax-Free Childcare users in families with at least one self-employed parent. The key points to note from Figure 2 are:

• the number of used Tax-Free Childcare accounts in families with at least one self-employed parent increased in July 2024, from 66,100 to 72,600, before decreasing in August 2024 to 59,800, and rising again in September 2024 to 66,600
• the percentage of families with used accounts and a self-employed parent slowly declined between April 2018 and August 2021. Since then, including this quarter, it has stabilised at around 13%
• this decreasing trend could have been due to stronger incentives for early take up by self-employed parents compared to employed parents given that they were ineligible for childcare vouchers so, prior to Tax-Free Childcare, were less likely to have had access to support with paying for childcare

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.

Figure 3: Disabled Children with a used TFC Account, Number and Percentage of Overall Children with Used Accounts

Figure 3 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. The key points to note from Figure 3 are:

• account use for disabled children increased in July 2024, from 6,200 to 6,900, decreased in August 2024 to 5,100, before increasing again in September 2024 to 5,900, although not to the peak observed at the start of the quarter
• following some initial volatility between April 2017 and September 2017, the percentage of used accounts with a disabled child was relatively stable at approximately 0.6%. However, since early 2021 it has followed a generally upward trend. This quarter, the percentage remained around 1%

6. Account use by age of child

There has been some variation this quarter in account use by age of child.

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

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

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

• while account use shows month-by-month variation, the continuing underlying trend in most age categories since the TFC scheme opened is an increase in the number of children with used accounts (excepting for the COVID-19 pandemic)
• for children age 0, account use increased slightly in August before showing a greater increase in September. This is consistent with previous September trends, but could also relate to the introduction of 15 hours free childcare for 9-month-olds in September 2024
• for children aged 1 to 3, account use increased in July 2024 before decreasing in August 2024, and rising again in September 2024
• considering longer-term trends, account use is no longer increasing for one-year-olds, with an average of 113,000 children with used accounts across the last 8 quarters. This may be in part due to the decline in births between 2021 and 2022, but this doesn’t fully account for the change in the underlying trend
• pre-COVID-19, one-year-olds were the age group with the greatest number of used accounts. However, post-pandemic, this age group has been exceeded by two-year-olds and, for the last two quarters, three-year-olds
• account use for children aged 4 increased in July 2024 then decreased in August 2024 and September 2024. Account use for this age group is more seasonal than for other pre-school age groups and is based around the academic year
• for children aged between 5 and 10, used accounts showed similar monthly trends, slightly increasing in July 2024, decreasing in August 2024 and increasing in September 2024
• account use for children aged 11 and over also slightly increased in July 2024 before also decreasing in August 2024 and rising slightly in September 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. There are several reasons for this, including:

• 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
• in applying for 30 hours free childcare, many families find that they are also eligible for Tax-Free Childcare and an account is opened for them, although they may not use the account at the time
• 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 6: Percentage of open, child-level TFC accounts which are used, by month

Figure 6 shows the percentage of open accounts which are used each month. The key points to note from Figure 6 are:

• account use increased from 46.4% in June 2024 to 49.6% in July 2024. It fell in August 2024 to 38.1%, before rising again in September 2024 to 43.8%
• account use as a percentage of open accounts for August and September 2024 was lower than the same months in 2023 and 2022. This is driven by reductions in the percentage of open accounts that are used in one and two-year olds, who became eligible for 15 hours free childcare in September and April 2024 respectively (see Figure 8)

8. Additional charts

Figure 7: Children aged 0, 1 and 2 with open TFC accounts, by month

Figure 7 shows the number of children aged 0 to 2 years with open Tax-Free Childcare accounts by month and child age. The key points to note from Figure 7 are:

• in September 2024, there were 199,000 open accounts for one-year-olds, an increase of 28,600 since June 2024. Continuing increases in this age group can be attributed to the DfE childcare expansion, with 15 hours free childcare becoming available to children older than nine months from September 2024
• a similar trend has been observed for two-year-olds in recent quarters, with this age group being eligible for 15 hours free childcare from April 2024
• in September 2024 there were 37,400 open accounts for 0-year-olds, an increase of 9,100 (24%) since June 2024. This can likely be attributed to 9-month-olds also being eligible for 15 hours free childcare from September 2024

Figure 8: Percentage of open accounts for children aged 1 and 2, which are used, by month

Figure 8 shows the percentage of open accounts for children aged 1 and 2, which are used, each month. The key points to note from Figure 8 are:

• the percentage of open accounts for one-year-olds which are used has continued to decrease, from an average of 74% last quarter to 59% this quarter. This is likely due to more accounts being opened prior to the DfE childcare expansion rollout affecting this age group in September 2024
• the percentage of open accounts that are used for two-year-olds has also continued to decrease slightly this quarter from 62% on average last quarter to 58% this quarter
• percentages are now broadly consistent (within 1% each month) between one and two-year-olds, who became eligible for the DfE 15 hours free childcare rollout in September and April 2024 respectively. This is in line with historical trends prior to the DfE scheme expansion

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 & 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 free 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 30 free hours if they receive tax credits or universal credit or childcare vouchers. Applications for the two offers are linked and accessed through the same online portal.

When a family applies for 30 hours free 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 free weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 2 years of eligible working parents. This was followed up by 15 hours free 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 free 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 hours free childcare

In September 2017 the government launched its offer of 30 free 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 free weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 2 years of eligible working parents. This was followed up by 15 hours free 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 free childcare via the childcare service, the online application for Tax-Free Childcare and free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 free 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 7-12, 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.