To think they have got rid of 15 free hours at 3 for high earners?

[Zoe303]

Not really an AIBU but just want to know if anyone has seen clear guidance!

My DS will be 3 in October, and my partner earns a little over £100k. A few months ago when planning for a new mortgage we were looking at the free childcare entitlement for 3 year olds and saw that while we weren’t eligible for 30 free hours when he turns 3, we would instead get 15 - great and fair enough.

Now since the new announcements about the changes to free entitlement it seems like that 15 is gone completely? On this gov page they don’t reference it anymore. www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

Can anyone tell me - have they got rid of the 15 hours for over 100k and it’s now all or nothing? Or am I going mad and the 15 for high earners never existed in the first place? Or is it still the case that high earners get 15 for three year olds? (and would get 15 from 9 months with the new system?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help!! We’re now not sure if we can afford a second child before the first one starts school as paying for them both to have full time childcare would be a stretch on our finances!

And you don’t think that shows you to be a complete [insert word I don’t want to get banned for using] to demand that some children be excluded from “improved education and life chances” by the government? 😂

If I'm paying £27.5k income tax per year, I'm using a service that I'M ENTITLED TO regardless of what morons on the Internet think. Why wouldn't I use it? I'd have contributed massively towards it.

And I also wouldn't begrudge anyone else to use the service, for example someone who hasn't contributed a penny to it. Their children deserve the same quality care.

It’s called 15 hours free education, just like it’s called free education for 2 year olds for low income families.

All beneficial for the child.

As @funinthesun19 says the 15 hours is meant to be for education not childcare.

How much over £100k is he earning? Because unless it's loads more, it's almost certainly worth paying the difference into a pension to bring his net taxable income under the threshold and get the 30 free hours and tax free childcare (ie 20% off your remaining bill) back. Just remember to include any potential bonuses etc.

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions - yes I realise now I should have been looking at a page about 15 hours (shows how bad the government website is that I wasn’t able to find that on my own!)

I appreciate we are on a very comfortable income and just about can afford to have two children in childcare, though we’ve just committed to an expensive mortgage and we both do contract work so just a bit worried about what might happen if we have a less stable period having committed to such large outgoings.

High earners are paying for this, and everything else the government offers. Of course they should get some of the benefit.

Anyone on 100k is unlikely to be lying about working 16 hours a week either, and should well ask why they are paying 30 hours childcare for people who only work 16 hours a week

Exactly