Using tax free childcare

[Waffle12]

Hi all

We are currently using the childcare voucher scheme. However now we have a 2nd child it looks like we may be a bit better off switching to tax free childcare as the savings are per child.

I have been researching this and just had a couple of questions.

1. would DH and I have an account each, or a joint account that we pay into?

2)when u pay in money, do you have to stipulate how much u are putting in for each child, or are u just crediting ur account with funds in general?

3)this follows on from q2. When using the funds to pay for childcare are we allowed to apportion this over the 2 childrens childcare as we wish? So we put in £500 for example. Can we use £50 for 1 child and £450 for the other child? We have 1 child at practically full time nursery, and the other just has after school care for a few hours a week so the 2 fees are very different.

Sorry if these are silly questions. Many thanks for any advice.

You have one family account, and within this there is a sub-account for each child. Once you've clicked on the relevant child you can add money to their account and set up payment from it. Or pay by bank transfer using the specific reference they give you for each child. It's really easy to use.