30 hours childcare

[devoncoast]

Hello,

Not AIBU but just wondering if anyone can advise me.

I am self-employed and have a child due to start preschool. I am just wondering when you are self-employed how do they calculate if you are eligible for the 30 funded hours as my income varies depending on the time of year. Do they base it on what class 2's you have paid, although I do not always earn enough to pay these I pay them regardless to cover myself. Or is it based on income figures?

Also his preschool only does 20 hours a week max. Is it possible to stretch the offer so i can use some at a childminder say 2 hours in term time then in total doing 22 hours a week but over 50 weeks? so during the holidays doing 22 hours with the childminder he normally does 2 with. or to stretch the offer would this need to be used at the same service where he is doing most of the hours doing the term?

Sorry if the above doesn't make sense, it's all a bit confusing to me. Thanks

You need to earn £120 a week on average.
Yes you can stretch it and share between providers.

It asks you if you earn over a certain amount and under another.
My husband is self employed and I had to input his unique taxpayer reference number. I think it was this anyway.
Not sure about an uneven split of hours. My childminder claims 15 hrs and school nursery the other 15.

The hours are term time hours only so can't be claimed in school holidays.

You can stretch the hours over the holidays eg 22 hours all year round.

Sorry I meant the full 30 hours can only be used for 38 weeks.

With the 22 hour stretch would it matter if I used a different provider during the holidays as his preschool is only 20 hours a week term term. So if i used 2 hours week term-term with a childminder ( plus 20 at his preschool) then could I use her for the full 22 hours during the holiday period?

thanks for all the help :)

You have to provide each provider with your
Eligibility code.
I suppose your childminder would just need to claim differently during holiday time? But I don't know if it's possible.

I had to ring to speak to someone when I was last reconfirming my details and found them quite helpful. Maybe give them a call and see what they advise?