How to pay into tax free childcare account?

[SerJax88]

Hi all I'm new to this site and my little one is set to start nursery next month.

I'm meant to pay money into a tax free childcare account which from my sleep deprived understanding is on the gov childcare account page. There doesn't appear to be anywhere to pay in? I don't have any bank details or anything like that to pay it to.

All I have is my code they gave me to give the nursery. Now the nursery asks for payment in advance of her starting which I'm meant to pay out of this account but I don't know where it is.

I'd really appreciate some insight, screenshot or Anything a sleep deprived lone parent could understand.

Thanks in advance I really appreciate it

Have you seen the official site yet, OP? You need to use your gov.uk account and password to sign up and use it.

www.gov.uk/apply-for-tax-free-childcare

You can pay into this one from your personal bank account (the site tells you which account nr, and what reference to use), the government's contribution then gets auto-added, and you can then within the site set up a direct debit to nursery to pay their bill. For every 8 pound you put in, the gov puts in some extra 2 (to a certain maximum). I give the site always a bit of time, so for a payment due date of 1 Sept, I have my own contribution set up at 20 Aug, and ask the site to pay into nursery at 25 Aug. If anything goes wrong, that leaves me time to sort it out. (It never has.) I have always put in a little more from my account than I thought is needed, just in case I miscalculated the government contribution.

It will take perhaps 30-45 mins of concentration to get everything properly set-up the first time you use it. I remember being a bit flummoxed by it the first time around, but just try that website I posted above and follow the instructions there.

Just to avoid confusion, your code for the funded hours is different to the tax free childcare. I had to apply separately by going through the website that PP posted. It took a while for them to get back to me and in the end I had to ring them to reconfirm some details. They then set up the account.

Is it possible to pay into this account straight from pre-tax salary? I remember reading somewhere that people do this but can't find anything about it online now. Thanks x

Hi all, thank you for your responses. Have had a bit of a hectic couple of weeks.

From what I have now gathered, I am on the 15 hours of free childcare and the account mentioned seems to be solely for tax free childcare which you can't be on UC for. I am receiving UC currently.

Lone parent with no family nearby. My brain is quite tires. But that is what I've gathered from speaking to people at her nursery.

I appreciate your responses immensely x