Free Childcare for Working Parents in 2024: How You Can Apply for 15 or 30 Hours of Free Childcare

The eligibility criteria to receive funded hours is as follows:

-        Both parents / the sole parent must be working in order to redeem childcare hours

-        Parents must earn a minimum of the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the national living or minimum wage and less than £100,000 a year

-        Parents who are self-employed or on a zero hours-contract must meet the same earnings threshold

The difference in how much funding you are entitled to, whether it’s 15 hours or 30 hours, depends on the age of the child. Those parents with a child aged 3 or 4 years are entitled to up to 30 hours of childcare, while the rollout of funding for younger children is currently capped at 15 hours.

This is set to increase to 30 hours as the government funded childcare hours continue to be rolled out, with parents of two year olds able to apply for 30 hours from September 2025.

Yes – if you meet the eligibility criteria and have a child that falls under the right age category, as funded hours continue to become available.

Whether you can receive 15 or 30 hours of funded childcare will depend on the age of your child at the time of application. Currently the 30 hour funding is only available to those with children aged 3 or 4 years, to support parents in returning to work fulltime. However, as the funding continues to become more widely available, this higher number of hours will be available to those with younger children.

The application process for childcare hours is simple, but it’s important to apply at the right time.

Parents need to apply for childcare hours before the start of the term in which your child will become eligible. If you miss this deadline and apply once the term has already started, you will not receive the funded hours until the next term.

Because of this, it is crucial that you think about applying well before the start date of the term in which your child will reach the eligible age, giving HMRC plenty of time to verify your information and confirm your eligibility.

In fact, as a general rule, HMRC recommends applying at least six weeks before the start date of the term in which you hope to receive funded hours.

To apply, you will need access to your National Insurance number, your child’s birth certificate reference number, the date you returned to work, and your Unique Taxpayers Reference number if you are self-employed. All of this information is required on the childcare application portal which you can find online via the government website.

NOTE: Don’t forget that you need to reapply for a childcare funding code every three months – more on this in the next and final section of this article.

My Ohana, like most nurseries across the UK, has a select number of places available for children using government funded childcare hours.

Parents are advised to get in touch with their chosen nursery as early as possible in advance of the upcoming intake period, to find out about places and availability. In order for a nursery to receive the funding they will need an up to date funded hours code, generated by the parent in relation to their child. This code must be re-applied for every three months and given to the nursery so that they can submit it and receive the funding due.

Without this, most nurseries will not accept a child under the government funded hours. So, if you wish to use this funding then you will need to first apply for the code, then get in touch with your nursery to secure a spot – giving them the relevant code in the process.

To speak with your selected My Ohana nursery about availability, get in touch using the contact details on our website.