An England-focused scheme
GOV.UK’s Free Childcare for Working Parents guide applies to people living in England. It links separately to funded early learning and childcare in Scotland, the childcare offer in Wales and childcare information in Northern Ireland. The calculator therefore labels this section as England-focused instead of using the phrase ‘UK free childcare’, which would overstate the scheme’s geographical scope.
Tax-Free Childcare, Child Benefit and adjusted-net-income calculations appear alongside the England section because families often need to consider them together, but they are separate rules. A result on the £100,000 income condition does not establish a place with a nursery, set the provider’s sessions or determine support available under a devolved administration. Those questions belong to the relevant official service and local provider.
How the £100,000 condition works
The applicant and their partner, if they have one, must each expect adjusted net income not to be over £100,000 for the current tax year. If either person expects £100,001, the income condition is not met. If a person expects exactly £100,000, the amount is not over the threshold, so the calculator reports ‘at threshold — check official eligibility service’ rather than an automatic failure.
This is not a combined-income test. Each person is measured individually using adjusted net income. Taxable benefits, investment income, rental profit and foreign income can affect that figure. Qualifying Gift Aid and pension contributions can reduce it under HMRC’s calculation, but payroll pension treatment must be handled correctly. P60 taxable pay may already reflect salary sacrifice or net-pay deductions.
The 2026/27 hours used by the website
For 2026/27, the current GOV.UK guide says eligible children aged 9 months to 4 years can receive 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year. Some providers may allow fewer hours to be taken over more weeks, but that depends on provider arrangements. The funded hours do not automatically cover every hour a parent wants to use.
A provider can ask for payment for extras such as meals, nappies, additional hours or activities. GOV.UK says a parent who does not want to pay for extras should be offered an alternative arrangement, such as providing food or nappies, and can still receive the funded childcare. The calculator shows hours, not a cash valuation, because provider rates, schedules and extras vary.
Why 2025/26 needs a transition warning
The 2025/26 tax year crossed the September 2025 expansion of the working-parent offer. Official Department for Education material described 15 funded hours for younger eligible children from September 2024 and an increase to 30 hours from September 2025. A single ‘30 hours for the whole tax year’ statement would therefore be misleading for a retrospective 2025/26 calculation.
The website does not ask for an entitlement term or exact date, so it deliberately avoids calculating one uniform annual-hours figure for 2025/26. It shows a warning that the offer changed during the year. A future historical-hours calculator would need term and date logic, the child’s age and the applicable rollout stage rather than relying on the tax-year selector alone.
Work, minimum earnings and exceptions
The scheme normally requires the applicant and their partner to be in work, starting a job or on specified types of leave. Each usually needs expected earnings over the next three months equivalent to 16 hours a week at the relevant minimum wage for their age. GOV.UK provides the current amounts and explains averaging for people who work throughout the year but are not paid regularly.
There are exceptions, including some situations involving incapacity, caring and parental leave, and special rules for a new self-employed business. Dividends, interest, property investment income and pension payments do not count towards the minimum-earnings test even though some may affect adjusted net income for the upper limit. The website therefore checks only the £100,000 income risk and lists the work test separately.
Application, codes and reconfirmation
Parents apply through a childcare account and, when approved, receive a code to give to the childcare provider. Application windows and the term after a child becomes age-eligible matter. The GOV.UK guide allows an application from when a child is 23 weeks old but directs parents to separate deadline guidance. The calculator does not predict a start date from an age category alone.
Eligibility details must be reconfirmed every three months. A valid code still needs to be accepted and validated by the provider, and a place is not guaranteed by this estimate. The applicant should use the official childcare account for a decision, speak to the provider about availability and pattern of hours, and contact the local authority where a delivery problem cannot be resolved.
Check the numbers with the full calculator
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