Can You Get Tax-Free Childcare on Maternity Leave?

You can keep receiving Tax-Free Childcare on maternity leave for any child already enrolled in the scheme, but you cannot open a new account for the baby you are on leave to care for until the final 31 days before you return to work. The government treats maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave as being “in work” for eligibility, so existing arrangements for older children stay funded throughout your leave.¹

Older Children Already in the Scheme

If you already have a Tax-Free Childcare account for an older child, nothing changes when your leave begins. The government carries on adding the 20% top-up to your deposits for that child whether you are on statutory maternity leave, shared parental leave, or adoption leave.¹

This is what protects a toddler’s nursery or childminder place while a new baby arrives. Losing that spot mid-leave would be expensive and disruptive, and the scheme is built to avoid exactly that outcome.

The New Baby and the 31-Day Rule

You cannot open a Tax-Free Childcare account for the child you are on leave to care for until the final 31 days of that leave. The reasoning is that Tax-Free Childcare exists to cover the cost of childcare so you can work, and while you are at home with the baby yourself, the government does not consider you to have a childcare cost for that child.

Once you are inside the 31-day window before your return date, apply through the GOV.UK Childcare Service portal. The application asks when you expect to start or return to work, and that date sets your eligibility window.² Keeping in Touch (KIT) days taken during that window count toward demonstrating your return to employment.

Apply as soon as you have a confirmed return date. You will usually get an eligibility decision straight away, though it can take up to seven days, and up to 30 days if HMRC needs to check further.²³ Marking the calendar for 31 days before you return, and applying that day, gets the top-ups flowing from your first day back.

How Your Income Is Assessed While on Leave

During maternity leave, HMRC assesses your income based on what you would normally earn when working, not the reduced amount of Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance you actually receive. That stops parents from being knocked out of the scheme simply because take-home pay has temporarily dropped.

When you fill in the application, use your contracted salary rather than your current maternity payments. Both you and your partner (if you have one) need to meet the minimum earnings threshold individually, and neither of you can have an expected adjusted net income above £100,000 in the current tax year, which includes bonuses, commissions, and foreign income.¹

You will need National Insurance numbers for both parents, a Unique Taxpayer Reference if either of you is self-employed, and your expected income for the three months after applying.²

Reconfirming Every Three Months

This is the trap. Every three months you have to log in to your childcare account and confirm your details are still correct.² Miss the deadline and the account drops to “pay only”: you can still pay your provider from the balance, but the government stops adding the 20% top-up until you reconfirm.

Sleep-deprived parents miss reconfirmation emails all the time. Set a recurring phone reminder for each quarterly deadline. When you reconfirm during leave, your status still counts as being in work, so the reconfirmation itself is straightforward. The same account also holds any 30 hours free childcare entitlement for three- and four-year-olds, and failing to reconfirm affects both at once, though a grace period lets your child keep a funded place until the end of the current term.

If You Decide Not to Return to Work

If your plans change and you do not return, the account stays open for two years from the end of your last eligible period. During that time it sits in “pay only” mode with no new top-ups. You can still use whatever balance remains, including top-ups already credited, to pay your childcare provider.

Withdraw the money to your bank account instead and you only get back what you deposited; the government’s top-up portion goes back to HMRC. If you are paying for any childcare at all, route it through the account rather than pulling the cash out.

What You Cannot Combine It With

Tax-Free Childcare cannot be received at the same time as Universal Credit, Working Tax Credit, or Child Tax Credit. Applying for Tax-Free Childcare triggers a notification to the relevant departments, and existing tax credit claims can be affected.⁴

The Universal Credit childcare element covers up to 85% of eligible childcare costs, which will often beat the 20% Tax-Free Childcare bonus for lower earners with high childcare bills. Run the figures through the GOV.UK childcare calculator before switching.

The older Childcare Vouchers scheme closed to new applicants in October 2018, but parents already enrolled can keep using vouchers as long as they stay with the same employer and that employer still runs the scheme.⁴ You cannot use vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare at the same time, and the switch away from vouchers is permanent. If your employer’s voucher scheme saves you more than the 20% top-up would, staying with vouchers may be the better move.

Age Limits Worth Knowing

Your child must be 11 or under to qualify, with eligibility ending on 1 September after their 11th birthday. For disabled children, that cutoff extends to 1 September after their 16th birthday.⁵ The 20% top-up is capped at £500 per quarter, or £2,000 per child per year, and doubles to £1,000 per quarter and £4,000 per year for a disabled child.⁶

1
GOV.UK. Free Childcare for Working Parents – Check If You’re Eligible
2
GOV.UK. Apply for Tax-Free Childcare
3
GOV.UK. Challenge a Childcare Service Application Decision
4
Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. Universal Credit Childcare Support – Interaction With Other Schemes
5
GOV.UK. Tax-Free Childcare Statistics Commentary September 2025
6
GOV.UK. Tax-Free Childcare