Extended childcare entitlement

Official government guidance | Legislation

Program description¶

Overview¶

For eligible working parents in England, the combined funded childcare entitlement follows this rollout:

• From April 2024, 2-year-olds receive 15 hours per week.

• From September 2024, children aged 9 months to 2 years receive 15 hours per week.

• From September 2025, children aged 9 months to 2 years receive 30 hours per week.

• Children aged 3 to 4 years receive 30 hours per week throughout these periods.

The younger-child rollout is set out in the 2023 amending regulations, regulations 1(2) and 2(5), (8). Hours are funded over 38 weeks, or stretched over more weeks without increasing the annual total.

The 30 hours include any universal (3- and 4-year-old) or targeted (2-year-old) hours available to the child. Childcare Act 2016 s.1(6) counts childcare available under the 2006 Act towards the total; 2014 regulations 3–4 establish those base entitlements. DfE’s statutory guidance A1.11 requires the first 15 hours for a child eligible for both targeted and working-parent provision to be funded as targeted hours. Qualifying for the working-parent entitlement never removes universal or targeted eligibility.

A child in a state-funded or council-funded reception class gets no funded hours outside its school place (statutory guidance, footnotes 7 and 17, paras A4.8 and C.6). It takes up that place in the September following its fourth birthday (C.5), so most 4-year-olds get universal and working-parent hours for the summer term only. early_years_term_share_before_school gives the share of the year’s terms before the child starts school, from its date of birth, and early_years_school_start_deferred keeps the year for a deferred start.

Eligibility requirements¶

Work status¶

Eligible individuals must be either employed or about to start employment. This includes those on qualifying leave types: sick, annual, shared parental, maternity, paternity, or adoption leave.

Non-working partners may qualify if they receive: incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, carer’s allowance, limited capability for work benefit, or contribution-based employment and support allowance.

Income requirements¶

Minimum earnings thresholds (per 3 months, 2024-25 rates) vary by age:

These thresholds are based on national minimum wage calculations for 16 hours per week.

Maximum income limit: Adjusted net income must not exceed £100,000 per year.

Additional rules¶

Income assessment¶

The program offers flexible income assessment:

• Combines multiple income sources

• Allows annual income averaging

• Gives self-employed individuals choice between total or self-employment income

Certain types of income are excluded from calculations: dividends, interest, property income, and pension payments.

Implementation¶

The extended childcare entitlement program is modeled through several interconnected components:

1. Parameter definition¶

Located in parameters/gov/dfe/extended_childcare_entitlement/, key parameters include:

• Income requirements:

  • countable_sources.yaml: Defines eligible income sources

  • limit.yaml: Sets the £100,000 maximum income threshold

  • minimum_weekly_hours.yaml: Specifies required working hours

• Program specifics:

  • hours.yaml: Defines entitlement hours by age group

  • expense_rate.yaml: Sets childcare funding rates

  • weeks_per_year.yaml: Specifies annual coverage

  • disability_criteria.yaml: Lists qualifying disability conditions

2. Income assessment¶

Implemented in extended_childcare_entitlement_meets_income_requirements.py:

• Calculates total eligible income from specified sources

• Converts yearly income to quarterly periods

• Applies minimum wage thresholds based on work hours

• Checks against maximum income limit

Example table (January 2025, before the September 2025 expansion):

3. Work condition verification¶

Handled by extended_childcare_entitlement_work_condition.py:

• Verifies employment status

• Handles special cases for:

  • Single parents (must be working)

  • Couples (both working or one working with partner qualifying for disability benefits)

  • Carers (considers UC Carer Element)

• Includes disability-based eligibility checks using defined criteria

Example table:

4. Overall eligibility determination¶

Managed by extended_childcare_entitlement_eligible.py:

• Combines results from income and work condition checks

• Applies eligibility rules at the benefit unit level

• Ensures all adult members (except children) meet requirements

• Returns final boolean eligibility determination

Example table:

5. Entitlement calculation¶

Final calculations in extended_childcare_entitlement_per_child.py, summed for the family by extended_childcare_entitlement.py:

• Determines weekly hours based on child’s age

• Counts only the terms the child is old enough for (extended_childcare_entitlement_term_share): its hours start with the first 1 January, 1 April or 1 September after it reaches the minimum age (SI 2022/1134 reg 27). The year’s terms begin on 1 April, 1 September and 1 January, a third of the year each, so a child aged 0 in the middle of the year can get one or two terms, and a child aged 1 who reached nine months after 1 April misses the summer term. Survey ages are whole years; months_since_last_birthday spreads birthdays over the year, and in a household simulation a child given only a whole age is taken to be born on 6 April

• Limits them to the hours the child and the family use (max_free_entitlement_hours_used, maximum_extended_childcare_hours_usage)

• Applies appropriate funding rates

• For children participating in working-parent provision, allocates their first funded hours, up to 15 per week, to the applicable universal or targeted entitlement based on legal eligibility, regardless of the standalone take-up flags

• Allocates only the remaining funded hours to extended_childcare_entitlement_per_child; a child with a universal or targeted entitlement who uses 15 hours a week or fewer has all funded hours allocated to that base programme

• Preserves combined support as the greater of the claimed standalone base entitlement and the working-parent total after usage caps, rather than subtracting an unpaid base award

• Sums the children in the benefit unit

The annual model evaluates parameters at January and does not prorate the April or September expansions within a calendar year.

Example table for 2024-25, for a child in England in a working family that uses 30 hours a week and gets no targeted hours. The model’s year has three terms, beginning on 1 April 2024, 1 September 2024 and 1 January 2025. Each row gives the child’s age on 6 October 2024 and the birth dates that produce its amount. Neither child starts reception before September 2025, and each reaches its age band before 1 April 2024, so each gets hours in all three terms.

A child who reaches the minimum age later in the year, or who starts reception during it, gets fewer funded terms. A 2-year-old born on 1 April 2022 gets working parent hours from September only, £3,146.40. A 3-year-old born on 1 April 2021 gets universal hours from September only: its universal entitlement falls to £2,234.40, and the summer term’s 30 hours all count as working parent hours at the age-2 rate, so this column rises to £5,380.80.