Nursery World - Government urged to 're-think' its Tax-Free Childcare scheme as take-up remains low

Less than one in six eligible families are using the Government’s Tax-Free Childcare scheme, reveal new figures.

The Tax-Free Childcare scheme opened in April 2017, but just one in six eligible families are currently using it

Quarterly statistics published by HMRC today reveal that just 204,950 families were using Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) as of December 2019. HMRC, which manages the scheme, previously estimated that around 1.3 million families would be eligible for TFC.

The figures do however reveal the number of families using TFC has increased since last year when just 91,000 families were benefitting from the scheme.

According to HMRC, account usage was highest in December 2019 among parents with children aged one and two.

The figures also show that while there has been a rise in the number of self-employed parents using the scheme since April 2018, the proportion of total users has fallen. This is despite the self-employed not being entitled to childcare vouchers.

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