Tax free childcare - can you 'bank' the government top up?

[JammyC]

I currently use childcare vouchers for our nursery but have just been on a calculator which suggests tax free childcare may be better for us.

From what I've read, the gov will give us £2000 per child, if we put in £9964 into the account.

I will be working part time next year, which means although we are eligible for the full £2000 top up, we won't need to use it all in the tax year.

My question is whether the governements top up (and my associated deposit to trigger the top up in the first place) can be 'banked' or 'rolled over' to the next tax year?

E.g. if we deposit £833 every month for 12 months to get the maximum £166 a month gov top (£2000 over the year) up we would have a total of £11,988 in the account. Our total nursery costs for that tax year come to £10,751. So can we carry forward the unused balance of £1237?

Yes ours rolled over as we build up a surplus to help so we have a few months off paying in January/Feb. However you can’t withdraw the gov funds..if you withdraw your own money into another account the top up automatically is taken off before you can withdraw

Yes but it can only be spent on childcare. Your figures look wrong. The topup maxes out at £500 per three month period. So you would get max topup by putting £8000 in annually, split into £2000 per three months. It would not need to be equally monthly amounts but is based on total in the three month period, which is based on the date you join the scheme.