Dreaded email saying Tax Free Childcare is stopping

[Cliffordthbigreddog]

Hiya,

Earlier today I received the dreaded email to say our tax free childcare (£2000 a year/£500 a quarter) is stopping as my partner's income will exceed £100k this year.

Whilst this is correct, does anyone know if I can reapply in the new tax year (after 5th April 2026), if my partners salary is expected to be significantly less than 100k (due to higher pension contributions and much lower bonus)?

Thanks

I think you can reapply, yes.

@Cliffordthbigreddog What's your income? Because £100k is a huge wage alone in my book!

Yes, the £100k is looked at on a tax year basis so if his salary will be less next tax year, you can.

No disrespect but 100k and you are claiming tax free childcare?!

Genuinely think the government needs to relook at this. I only work 22 works and still pay towards my childcare fees, the full amount and not by tax free childcare because I can afford too and already get enough get help with the 30 hours which get split over the year so my childcare can remain in childcare out of term time. We still have a comfortable life.

I genuinely think posts like this are made to get reactions.

it’s just making a mickery out of the system

yep you can as its for each tax year

@cauliflowercheeseplease Totally agree! Not even sure the OP works?

I think we can be very sure OP works, since both parents have to in order to get tax free childcare.

Don’t both parents have to work to qualify for tax free childcare?

@cauliflowercheesepleasetax free childcare is where you pay through your gov childcare account and for every £8 you pay in the government give you £2 ie the tax. Is that what you mean in your post? You can use it along side the 30 hours. I pay a lot of tax each month so appreciate the tax free element with my huge nursery fees.

‘No disrespect’ but OP’s household are actually net contributors and at bare minimum they deserve an absolute drop in the ocean kickback like a little bit of tax knocked off their childcare bill.

This is the problem with this country.

Want a small percentage of people to pay for everything and get pissed off if they get anything back.

Go to Sweden and Denmark and nothing is means tested at all.

Targeted support for those who need it, but high income households have the same access to universal benefits including heavily subsidised childcare like everyone else.

You can reapply in the new tax year but because you'll do it after 5th April, you next become eligible from 1st Sept.

The other option would be to contribute to his pension in this tax year enough to get adjusted earnings under 100k and reapply before the end of March

There are threads on the HENRYUK reddit channel explaining this

Thank you for all your replies, I genuinely appreciate it.

@IrredeemablySo I'd be interested to know OPs total household income. If she's working then I feel slightly differently, but surely if she's not childcare isn't needed?
But then, having said that, I suppose no/low income families in which the parents/parent isn't working get free hours so...

She is working. She must be or they wouldn’t get tax free childcare. The eligibility requirements are that both parents earn over the lower threshold and under the higher one.

@WhatAMarvelousTune Thank you. So I'm assuming if just one parent earns over it e.g. the other not working, they wouldn't qualify?

If one parent isn’t working, it doesn’t matter what the other parent earns, because they won’t qualify anyway.

So you are fully entitled to tax free childcare but you don’t claim it because you are morally righteous?

Do you have any idea how much money the wealthy refrain from paying through certain loopholes and allowances that your average person can’t? But you are up in arms about a completely legally claimed 20% off childcare?

If you are going to make sufficient pension contributions to bring income below the £100K this year you need to contact them ASAP tell them that your adjusted net income will not exceed £100,000 in this year. If you can afford to make the contribution to do this it’s a no brainer as once your income exceeds £100,000 you also lose the personal allowance so your effective tax rate is really high. The contributions need to go through before 5 April. Ignore the slightly jealous comments you are entitled to claim this and entitled to use pension contributions to manage your finances. It’s standard planning like investing in an ISA and an effective way to increase your pension pot. As PP says there’s lots of advice out there showing how this works just google it.

@Lovethystupidneighbour It's all relative. To me, someone earning £100k pa is wealthy. That's a huge amount more than DH and I put together!

£100k is £5700 a month

2 people earning £50k take home £3300 a month each. And get tax free childcare, free hours, child benefit etc.

Can’t you direct some to your pension?

As a working individual it’s so rare that the government helps, all the support is for those who don’t work.

So I wouldn’t begrudge anyone making use of the one thing they are entitled to claim. You’re not any better than anyone else by choosing to pay full price when the government allows for a subsidy based on income!

Regardless, £2k annually on a £100k+ salary is a moot point because it’s such a small proportion of the wage. So the loss of it isn’t a huge deal, but I still don’t begrudge claiming if you’re entitled to. Really silly to use that as a rod to beat someone with given parliament has implemented it.

If you are too late and it was for the previous tax year and you can't backdate pension, you can still backdate gift aid and reduce adjusted net income that way. You can't resubmit a tax return though so you need to do it before that is done. Annual membership to charitable trusts with gift aid that you can enjoy going to as a family can be included (zoos etc). Sorry some people on here have been incredibly rude to you about your family finances. You'd be foolish not to claim. Anyone who thinks otherwise has no business commenting on other people's legitimate and legal decisions on how they manage their finances. Child care costs are huge. Unbelievable that some people have an issue with net contributers actually getting a minimal amount of help for a change. It's that attitude that has brought the UK to its knees. We're headed towards being a country of net beneficiaries. Let's see how that works out!

Oh FFS. If the government didn’t want someone earning just under £100K to claim tax free childcare they wouldn’t be eligible. No one is doing anything morally wrong by claiming a benefit they are legally entitled to. You don’t get points for sacrificing it.

This family is paying a substantial amount into the system , perfectly entitled to claim back . I would too in their shoes. You also don’t get the free 30 hours if you’re a high earner so you talking about that is irrelevant .
If we didn’t have any high earners in this country we wouldn’t have any kind of benefits as nobody would be footing the bill for them !

@JessicaPeach £3300 each is again a big amount IMO. That's £6600 per month! I'd take that!