Martin Lewis warns families missing out on up to £2000 in childcare support costs a year

Families missing out on up to £2,000 childcare support costs a year: Martin Lewis explains allSource: Good Morning Britain

Transcript

00:00Why are people missing out?

00:02They're missing out because the tax-free child care scheme

00:04isn't tax-free and isn't about tax,

00:06so it's completely misnamed and totally confusing

00:08and that puts many people off.

00:10In fact, I'm campaigning at the moment to rename it

00:12the Working Family Child Care Top-Up

00:15because it's for working families

00:16and it tops up what you pay to child care.

00:19Now, don't get this confused with funded child care,

00:21the 30 hours that people get funded.

00:23This is about for people who are paying for child care.

00:26Crucially, the child care we're talking about in England

00:29must be Ofsted registered,

00:30which includes the early years register

00:32and the child care register.

00:33In Scotland, needs to be care inspectorate registered.

00:36In Northern Ireland, needs to be registered

00:38with the local health and social care trust.

00:40But it can be after school camps,

00:42it can be just summer clubs.

00:43If you're just paying for child care in the summer,

00:45this works.

00:46And the way the tax-free child care scheme operates,

00:48and you need to check that the operator takes it,

00:50is you put money into a gov.uk tax-free child care account.

00:56I know, totally missing out, confusing name,

00:58but that's what it's called at the moment.

01:00And for every 80p you put in,

01:02the state adds 20p,

01:04up to a maximum of £500 free per quarter,

01:07so £2,000 free a year,

01:09that you can then use to pay on child care.

01:12So if you're paying for registered child care,

01:14I mean, most nurseries and, you know,

01:17most official child care is registered.

01:18That's good.

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