Tax Free childcare - What happens to my funds when my child is no longer eligible?

[summertimemum]

My daughter is 11 and I have read online that tax free childcare is no longer eligible for her from 1st September after she turns 11 (so in 3 weeks time). What happens to the funds left in the account? Can I still use the money to pay for activities but just not pay more in to the account? I haven't used all of my top up benefit for the quarter so I was wondering if I should put a lump sum in before 1st September. Is anyone able to advise?

You can continue to use funds that were deposited and topped up prior to your child's birthday. We did exactly the same and ended up with around £1500 in the account. However, our son quickly aged out of the holiday clubs and so we ended up having the money returned to our account. It was a relatively easy process to do so worth it if you think you'll use the funds.

That is really useful to know, thanks @Tweetinat .

You can withdraw it back to your bank account anytime. I’ve done this when our direct debit kept going but we weren’t using wraparound care during the school holidays.