Childcare Cost Calculator (England)

Funded childcare is devolved, and each UK nation runs its own scheme, not just with different numbers, but different mechanisms entirely. Scotland funds 1,140 hours a year for every 3 and 4-year-old universally, with no income test at all, plus some 2-year-olds on a means-tested basis. Wales offers up to 30 hours a week for working parents of 3 and 4-year-olds, spread across 48 weeks a year rather than England's 38 or 51. Northern Ireland has no funded-hours entitlement at all. Instead, working parents get a 15% subsidy on childcare costs, capped at £203 a month from April 2026.

Because these are structurally different systems, not variations on a theme, this calculator only produces figures for England. If you're in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the nation selector above links straight to your own country's official guidance instead of guessing at a number that would likely be wrong. Tax-Free Childcare is the one part of this page that genuinely is UK-wide. It works the same way wherever you are.

This is the part almost nobody warns you about. Both the 30 hours entitlement and Tax-Free Childcare depend on each parent's adjusted net income staying at or under £100,000 a year. It isn't a gradual taper the way tax bands are. It's a hard line. Earn £99,999 and you keep everything. Earn £100,001 and you lose the entire entitlement, not a percentage of it. For a family relying on funded hours, that can mean thousands of pounds a year disappearing over a single pound of salary.

The good news is that “adjusted net income” isn't the same as your salary. It's calculated after certain deductions, and pension contributions are the big one. If you pay into a workplace pension through salary sacrifice, that amount comes off your income before the £100,000 test is applied. So a parent earning £103,000 who increases their pension contributions by £3,500 a year can land back under the threshold, keeping the full entitlement while also saving more for retirement. It's one of the few places in the UK tax and benefits system where paying more into your pension can make you financially better off immediately, not just decades from now.

If you're anywhere near the £95,000 to £100,000 mark, it's worth checking your adjusted net income properly (your payslip or HR team can help) rather than guessing from your salary alone, and talking to a financial adviser if the numbers are close. This isn't personalised advice, just a nudge to check before you lose out.

Funded childcare doesn't switch on the moment your child turns 9 months old. It starts at the beginning of the next school term after that, and terms only start in January, April or September. If your baby turns 9 months in October, you don't get funded hours in October; you wait until the following January. That's a gap of up to three months where parents who assumed they were covered end up paying full price and only find out afterwards.

This trips up nearly every parent, and it's easy to see why. Nothing about “30 hours from 9 months” sounds like it comes with a three-month asterisk. But nurseries and childminders plan their funded places around the same termly calendar as schools, and the government's funding follows that cycle too, so there's no way to get funded hours mid-term no matter how ready your child is.

The practical fix is to apply for your childcare code well before you think you need it, ideally 2 to 3 months ahead of the term you want funding to start, since codes need to be issued and validated with your provider before term begins. If you're planning around a return to work, work backwards from the term date, not your child's birthday.

Tax-Free Childcare is a completely separate scheme from the 30 hours, and it kicks in on whatever childcare costs are left over once your funded hours are used up. You open an online account, pay money into it whenever you like, and for every £8 you put in, the government adds £2, a 20% top-up, capped at £500 every three months (£2,000 a year) per child. You then pay your provider directly out of that account.

Because it only applies to the remaining cost after funded hours, the two schemes work together rather than against each other: funded hours shrink the bill first, then Tax-Free Childcare knocks a further chunk off whatever's left. You don't have to choose between them.

What you do have to choose between is Tax-Free Childcare and other support. It can't be combined with Universal Credit's childcare element or with employer childcare vouchers, so if you're already on one of those schemes, switching needs some thought about which works out better for your household. And like the 30 hours, Tax-Free Childcare needs reconfirming every three months. Miss the reconfirmation window and the account, and often the funded hours code alongside it, can lapse, so put a reminder in your calendar rather than relying on memory.

“Free hours” doesn't mean a completely free place. Providers are allowed to charge for things that sit outside the funded hours themselves: meals, nappies, sun cream, outings, and any extra hours beyond your funded allowance. Many nurseries build a meaningful part of their income around these charges, and that's legal.

What they're not allowed to do is make those charges compulsory as a condition of taking up your funded place. A provider can't insist you pay a “top-up fee” just to access hours that are supposed to be free, and they can't quietly charge a higher headline rate specifically during funded hours to claw the funding gap back. Extras have to stay optional.

In practice, it's worth asking your provider for a clear, written breakdown of exactly what's included in the funded hours and what costs extra, before you sign anything. If a charge feels like it's being presented as mandatory, your local council's family information service can tell you whether it's within the rules. You're allowed to push back.