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Original poster

Tax Free Childcare - losing eligibility over £100,000

61 replies

123456kent · 26/11/2022 10:50

Hello,
My husband earns very near the £100,000 mark, and so in March we’d expect him to lose our eligibility for TFC and 30 Free Hours once he has a bonus/salary increase. Has anyone confirmed they are no longer eligible on the website? What happens? Do they take back any of their top ups? If we were to maximise on building up this account between now and then (to earn the maximum amount of top up) will it be stripped off us as soon as we say we are no longer eligible? Thanks

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plinkypots · 28/11/2022 00:27

Just put the overage amount into a pension and that will bring you back under.

pimlicoanna · 28/11/2022 00:13

Its definitely just one parent that needs to earn over £100k.

PurplePansy05 · 28/11/2022 00:12

One parent needs to earn it, not both.

And I think you'll definitely be able to claim it until your DH's salary increases and until the next confirmation of your eligibility is due after that, which happens quarterly. At that point I believe you'd have to update the salary details (the questions related to them) on your Gov account and they would reassess your eligibility and let you know what happens next.

Shamoo · 28/11/2022 00:09

(Sorry to be clear, I agree with @Elbo7 - disagreeing with PP)

Shamoo · 28/11/2022 00:08

No that’s incorrect - if one parent earns over 100k you lose it

Elbo7 · 28/11/2022 00:05

Someone I know passed the 100k threshold for 30 hours with their (much larger than usual) end of January bonus. Their nursery had already claimed for the child for Jan-march but the parents told the nursery not to claim for apr-July (and then their child went to school in September). As far as I know, their claim was submitted for the first few terms believing they wouldn't hit the 100k mark (wages/hmrc would have confirmed this I presume) and nothing happened after. This was a while ago, when the scheme was fairly new.

They weren't claiming TFC as one parent was still claiming childcare vouchers for older children and you couldn't claim both at the same time.

The helpline for tfc and 30 hours may be able to answer this hypothetically?

As far as I know, only one parent needs to be earning over 100k, not both, to then become ineligible for 30hr & tfc

drpet49 · 28/11/2022 00:04

user1497787065 · 28/11/2022 00:03

So parents earning almost 200k annually still get 30 hours free childcare? Complete madness.

I appreciate that childcare is expensive and when I had my children there was no government funded childcare but cannot accept that the taxpayer funds childcare at that level of salary.

i agree

user1497787065 · 28/11/2022 00:03

So parents earning almost 200k annually still get 30 hours free childcare? Complete madness.

I appreciate that childcare is expensive and when I had my children there was no government funded childcare but cannot accept that the taxpayer funds childcare at that level of salary.

Littlefish · 27/11/2022 23:51

For 30 hour funding, I think that you BOTH need to be earning over £100k each to lose your eligibility.

mydailymailhell · 27/11/2022 23:37

Watching with interest too. For info a few months ago my confirmation was not accepted and I had to dispute it. I then got a letter saying they would reinstate my TFC because at the time I confirmed I “reasonably believed” I would earn under 100k. The way it’s structured to be forward looking over three month rolling periods makes me think that at the point in time during the tax year when you become ineligible then they just stop it and there is no look back (ie an adjustment through tax code or tax return to recoup) bit this is just a guess

Walrus6 · 27/11/2022 23:31

I’m interested to know this too.