How do I use the tax free childcare account?

[Alicia870]

I might be being really dim here but I'm just a bit confused about how this works. Just got the notice that I'm eligible for tax free childcare. I've gone into the site and selected my child care provider. It's giving me the option to pay money in to my daughters a account. How does this work then?

Say for example I put in 100 pound to her account, do they add more in?
And when I put the money into her account, do I just transfer it over to my child care provider on that site? Sorry this might be really obvious but it's really confusing me!

If your bill is £100 you put in £80 and theybout in £20.

You then pay your childcare provider

It can take up to 2 or 3 days for each step so leave plenty of time

Exactly that - you pay your money in, the government tops it up, you transfer to your childcare provider.
My top up normally shows up straight away, but they say it can all take 2-3 days to clear.

If you paid in £100 the gov would put in £25 (it's £2 for every £8 you pay in - not 20%). So I just divide the figure I want to pay in by 8 and multiply by 2 and that gives me the amount they will put in.

Eg 100÷8 = 12.5 then x 2 = 25
Took me a while to get my head around it as well!

Then you just make a payment to your childcare provider using that site (the gov one).
Hope that makes sense!