As children return to school, a timely reminder about Tax-Free Childcare
17 August 2020
As children in Scotland returned to school last week, HMRC is reminding parents that they can apply for Tax-Free Childcare to help with childcare costs.
In order to access this money, families simply need to pay money into their Tax-Free Childcare account, and for every £8 deposited, the government immediately tops up the payment with an additional £2. Working parents, including self-employed individuals, are eligible for the scheme, as long as they earn between the minimum wage and £100,000 per year. They must also have children aged between 0 and 11 years old. For a disabled child, aged 0-17 years old, families can receive up to £4,000 in financial support from the government each year.
HMRC wanted to remind parents due to the fact that they may not be aware of the scheme or may have simply forgotten to claim due to the extended period of time that their children have been out of school. It is estimated that approximately 110,000 families in Scotland are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare.
More information is available at the Childcare Choices website, where individuals can also apply. It has a Childcare Calculator which assesses all of the government’s childcare offers to see which would work best for each individual family.
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