Tax free childcare

[LemonDrizzle44]

This is all new to me so hopefully I’m making sense.

My LO is starting nursery in January. He gets the 30hrs funding which I’ve applied for and also applied for the tax free account too.

When my LO starts initially, he will be going 2 days a week which costs around £130 per month (with funding). In April we will be increasing to 3 days a week (approx £400 a month).

Am I allowed to overpay into the account to get the maximum government top up (as a just in case we need the odd extra day here and there - obviously with nursery agreeing to this).

Also, hypothetically speaking, if we were lucky to have a second LO, the overpayments early on would make maternity leave a little more comfortable (if this makes sense).

Yes, you can overpay!

Yes if you top it up with 2k every 3 months you'll get the full 2.5k in the account, and it just builds up and stays there. It's a good trick to pack it early and use later (although with 30h free on 2 days a week I'm surprised you're paying anything)
We put plenty in ours early on but actually with the advent of free childcare we didn't use it all, but I think you can withdraw (but they take the tax back again of course)