Targeted childcare entitlement#
Official government guidance | Legislation
Program description#
Overview#
The targeted childcare entitlement (also known as the 2-year-old offer) provides 15 hours of free childcare per week for eligible 2-year-old children. The entitlement totals 570 hours annually and it delivered across 38 weeks. This program specifically targets families who meet certain income or benefit criteria.
Eligibility requirements#
Age criteria#
Children must be exactly 2 years old - not younger or older. Once a child turns 3, they transition to the universal or extended childcare entitlement programs.
Benefit-based eligibility#
Families qualify if they receive any of these benefits:
Income Support
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit)
Eligibility conditions#
Families may also qualify based on income thresholds if they receive:
Universal Credit with household earned income of £15,400 or less per year
Tax Credits (Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit) with household income of £16,190 or less per year
Geographic scope#
The program applies only to families living in England. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland administer their own early education systems.
Implementation#
The targeted childcare entitlement program is implemented through several interconnected components:
1. Parameter definition#
Located in parameters/gov/dfe/targeted_childcare_entitlement/
, key parameters include:
Program eligibility:
age_eligibility.yaml
: Defines the eligible age (2 years old)qualifying_benefits.yaml
: Lists qualifying benefitsqualifying_criteria.yaml
: Specifies additional eligibility conditions
Income thresholds:
income_limit/tax_credits.yaml
: Sets £16,190 threshold for Tax Credit recipientsincome_limit/universal_credit.yaml
: Sets £15,400 threshold for Universal Credit recipients
Entitlement specifics:
hours_entitlement.yaml
: Defines 570 annual entitlement hourschildcare_funding_rate.yaml
: Sets funding rates by age
2. Benefit-based eligibility assessment#
Managed in targeted_childcare_entitlement_eligible.py
:
Checks if family resides in England
Verifies receipt of qualifying benefits defined in
qualifying_benefits.yaml
References additional qualifying criteria for means-tested benefits
Example table:
Benefit type |
Receiving benefit |
Meets criteria |
Is eligible |
---|---|---|---|
Income Support |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
JSA (income-based) |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
ESA (income-related) |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
Pension Credit (Guarantee) |
Yes |
N/A |
Yes |
Universal Credit |
Yes |
No |
No |
Tax Credits |
Yes |
No |
No |
None |
No |
N/A |
No |
3. Benefit eligibility#
Benefit eligibility is implemented in separate files for different benefit programs:
Universal Credit criteria#
Universal Credit criteria is handled by meets_universal_credit_criteria_for_targeted_childcare_entitlement.py
:
Verifies UC receipt by checking if benefit amount is greater than zero
Compares earned income against £15,400 threshold
Returns boolean eligibility determination
Example table:
Universal Credit amount |
Earned income |
Below £15,400 threshold |
Meets UC criteria |
---|---|---|---|
£500 |
£14,000 |
Yes |
Yes |
£300 |
£16,000 |
No |
No |
£0 |
£10,000 |
Yes |
No |
Tax Credits criteria#
Managed by meets_tax_credit_criteria_for_targeted_childcare_entitlement.py
:
Checks for either Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit receipt
Compares applicable income against £16,190 threshold
Returns boolean eligibility determination
Example table:
Tax Credit type |
Credit amount |
Applicable income |
Below £16,190 threshold |
Meets TC criteria |
---|---|---|---|---|
Child Tax Credit |
£2,000 |
£15,000 |
Yes |
Yes |
Working Tax Credit |
£1,000 |
£16,500 |
No |
No |
Both |
£3,000 |
£14,000 |
Yes |
Yes |
None |
£0 |
£10,000 |
Yes |
No |
4. Entitlement calculation#
Final calculation in targeted_childcare_entitlement.py
:
Checks if child’s age is exactly 2 years using
age_eligibility
parameterApplies entitlement hours (570 annually) for eligible children
Multiplies by appropriate funding rate based on age (£8.28 per hour for 2-year-olds in 2024)
Returns final annual entitlement amount
Example table:
Child age |
Eligible |
Hours entitlement |
Hourly rate |
Annual entitlement |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
No |
0 |
£11.22 |
£0 |
2 |
Yes |
570 |
£8.28 |
£4,719.60 |
3 |
No |
0 |
£5.88 |
£0 |
4 |
No |
0 |
£5.88 |
£0 |