Free childcare funding for two year olds for working parents

From April 2024, free childcare is being expanded for working families of younger children so they can access 15 hours per week, increasing to 30 hours per week by September 2025.

Eligible working parents of three and four-year-olds already get 30 hours a week of free childcare.

From April 2024, eligible working parents of two-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours childcare support. 

What makes you eligible?

• both parents are working or one parent is working in lone parent families. This is defined as earning the equivalent of 16 hours per week on national minimum wage/national living wage, but less than £100,000 per year. This applies for self-employed and zero-hour contracts.
• both parents are employed but one or both of them are temporarily away from the workplace on parental, maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
• both parents are employed but one or both of them are temporarily away from the workplace on statutory sick pay.
• one parent is employed and one parent has substantial caring responsibilities based on specific benefits received for caring.
• one parent is employed and one parent is disabled or incapacitated based on specific benefits.

This means your child will need to have reached their second birthday on or before 31 March 2024 and you must apply by 31 March 2024 to access the free childcare from 1 April. 

How to apply?

Applications for working parents of two-year-olds, will open from 2 January 2024 on the Childcare Choices website. Applications for Summer term (April – July) must be made by 31 March 2024.

The online application process will tell you the full eligibility criteria and what you need to provide when you apply.

You should find out if you’re eligible straight away, before 31 March 2024, but it can take up to seven days. It is advisable to apply before mid-March.

What happens next?

If approved, a childcare account will be set up and you’ll get a code to give to your childcare provider to access the funding.

Because the first phase applies from 1 April 2024, parents that apply from 2 January need to reconfirm eligibility before you have had a chance to use the code.

Every three months (ten to 12 weeks) you must reconfirm your eligibility, via your childcare account, to keep your code valid.

Further details will be available on the Childcare Choices website.