Thing that is replacing childcare vouchers

[Alwaysinahurrynow]

Not sure what the name of the thing is, but had thought the new gov't scheme was starting in September but can't seem to find out what's happening - has anyone heard anything about timescales etc? As I don't want to miss out because I register late and it takes too long to cancel my childcare voucher scheme.

Tax-Free Childcare.
Still not that much known.
You will set up an account for each child and can pay up to £8000 a year into it, Goverment then tops up by£2000. Idea is that you pay 80% and Government tops up remaining 20% of childcare cost.
It is being phased in so there will be eligibility criteria.

For some people it may not be better than the childcare voucher scheme.
One plus of this new scheme is that it can be used by the self employed.

Sadly it's been delayed until 2017. There was a legal challenge from some of the childcare voucher providers which meant no work could be done on the scheme while the case was being heard. The challenge was thrown out, but it's set everything back. And not the government's fault for once!

For me it would definitely have been worse, so when it does come in do a careful comparison. We had all agreed at work to stick with the existing scheme (only 3 of us currently using it).

Just discovered the limits either parent's earnings on the new scheme have been reduced by a third to £100,000 and you have to work more hours to qualify (16 rather than 8).

Yeah, it's better if you're working quite a lot of hours and paying a lot for childcare, it's less useful where you only need a few hours a week and one partner doesn't work much or at all. The current voucher scheme, I don't believe the non-claiming parent has to be working at all?

It will allow people earning a low wage to participate though. At the moment there is no benefit if you don't pay tax.

It's per child too isn't it?? Definitely better than voucher scheme if you're higher rate / have more than 1 child.