FAMILIES with a child about to turn three need to apply for free childcare by tomorrow or risk missing out.
If your child reach age three between April 1 and August 1, you should apply for childcare help worth up to £5,244 before July 31.
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The average full-time nursery place now costs a massive £7,000 a year, so it’s important to take advantage of any help that is available.
Parents are entitled to 30 hours of free childcare for 38 weeks of the year during school term time once their child reaches age 3.
And with the average cost of part-time childcare of 25 hours a week coming in at around £138 a week, that means help could be worth the equivalent of £5,244 a year.
If you don’t use the full 30-hour allocation each week, you could get free childcare for 52 weeks of the year, depending on your provider.
But you need to apply within a certain window to claim the help.
It’s available to those who live in England and have a child aged three or four – if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, there are different schemes available.
Whether you can get the help depends on if you are working, your income, your child’s age and circumstances, and your immigration status.
But if you qualify, you can apply online for a childcare account to get a code that gets you the assistance.
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The application window depends on your child’s birthday – you can apply from when your child is two years and 36 weeks old.
If your child turns three in the summer months, between April 1 and August 3, they can get 30 hours of childcare from the school term starting on or after September 1.
Applications open from June 15, and you’re recommended to get yours completed by July 31 or risk not getting the code in time.
That means families have only hours left to get an application in if they’ve not already done so.
But claiming the help can affect your entitlement to other benefits like Tax Credits, so do seek advice if you’re not sure.
How to apply for free childcare
You’ll need to head to the Gov.uk site to apply online.
If you have a partner, you’ll need to include details including whether you live together or are married or in a civil partnership.
You won’t be able to apply if someone else has already put an application in for the same child – the help is per child, not per parent or guardian.
If you’re separated, you and your ex-partner must apply separately and HMRC will decide who gets the account.
Once your application has been approved, you’ll get a code for 30 hours free childcare, which you can give to your childcare provider.
It should be an approved provider – you can check by searching Ofsted or the list of registered childminder agencies.
You can still get help if you have older children. Parents can get tax-free childcare for kids up to age 11.
You can get up to £500 every three months, up to a maximum of £2,000 a year, for each of your children.
The amount goes up to £1,000 every three months if a child is disabled, to a maximum of £4,000 a year.
