Important
For working family funding entitlements (30 hours), you must apply for your eligibility code by 31 August 2025 to claim funding in the Autumn Term.
Funded childcare from 9 months to 23 months old
Free childcare is available to eligible working families of children aged from 9 months to 23 months old.
How much free childcare can I get?
Eligible children can currently get up to 15 hours per week of funded childcare. From September 2025 this will increase to 30 hours per week.
Find out what you can get
Use the online calculator to to see how much help you can get to pay for childcare.
Who is eligible?
You may be eligible for the funded childcare offer if you (and your partner, if applicable) are working and meet the following income conditions:
- Each earn less than £100,000 a year
- Each of you earns at least the equivalent of 16 hours per week at minimum or living wage (for example, around £120 per week if you're aged 25 or over).
Apprentices can also qualify if they meet the 16-hour threshold based on the apprentice minimum wage.
You may still qualify under certain circumstances, even if one of you is not currently working. These include:
- One or both of you is temporarily away from work due to maternity, paternity, adoption leave, parental leave, or statutory sick pay.
- One partner is working while the other is unable to work due to:
- Having substantial caring responsibilities, or
- Being disabled or medically incapacitated.
In these cases, you or your partner must be receiving one of the following benefits:
- Incapacity Benefit
- Carer’s Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
You can also apply if:
- You are self-employed or on a zero-hours contract, as long as you expect to meet the earnings threshold on average over the next three months.
- You are not currently working, but have a confirmed job offer and are due to start work within 14 days, and you expect to meet the earnings requirement within the following three months.
- You are starting a new business – in this case, you will not need to meet the minimum income requirement during your first year of trading.
How to apply for funded childcare for working families
To get funded childcare for working families, you must apply to the government in advance. They will assess your eligibility. If you are approved they will give you an eligibility code.
Application deadlines
To use your funding, you must receive your eligibility code by the following deadlines:
- 31 December – to start using funding from the beginning of the spring term (January)
- 31 March – to start using funding from the beginning of the summer term (April)
- 31 August – to start using funding from the beginning of the autumn term (September)
If you miss the deadline, your child may not get funded hours for that term.
If you already have a code for up to 15 hours of funded childcare and have reconfirmed your eligibility, you can receive up to 30 hours per week starting in September 2025. You must reconfirm your code before 31 August 2025.
How many hours are children entitled to?
From September 2025 a child can get up to 1,140 hours per year over no fewer than 38 weeks.
A child’s entitlement year begins from the term after they reach 9 months (See example)
If a child was getting 15 hours per week in the Spring and Summer terms in 2025, the offer will increase to 30 hours per week with effect from September. A child may get the following total hours, depending on when their entitlement year began:
- Entitlement year from January 2025 to December 2025: Total 780 hours
- Entitlement year from April 2025 to March 2026: Total 925 hours