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1. About this release

This is a quarterly publication of Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) statistics. Tax-Free Childcare provides help with childcare costs for working parents.

For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.

Tax-Free Childcare replaced the childcare voucher and directly contracted childcare schemes, which closed to new entrants in October 2018.

For more information about Tax-Free Childcare see the summary information in Annex 1 or visit guidance on Tax-Free Childcare on GOV.UK.

2. Summary

Key points from this release covering the period to 30 June 2025 are:

• TFC account use remained high in April, May and June 2025, with 572,000 families using TFC for 702,000 children in June 2025
• the government spent £57.7 million on TFC top-up in June 2025, lower than its peak level of £62.3 million in July 2024, reflecting lower spending per family using TFC
• reduced per family TFC spending coincides with 15 hours funded childcare becoming available through DfE for children aged 9 months to 2 years in 2024
• a combined application process for the TFC and DfE schemes has also led to an increased number of open TFC accounts for children aged 0, 1 and 2

Note on definition and methodology changes in this publication:

• from April 2025 onwards, some methodological changes have been made to the way monthly figures for open and used accounts are defined and calculated
• open accounts previously only included accounts that were open at the end of a month. We now include accounts used at any point during the month within a TFC eligibility period
• accounts that are no longer open can still be used to pay for childcare, but are not able to receive government top-up. Such accounts are no longer reported in TFC used account figures
• these changes would be expected to lead to a modest increase in the numbers of open accounts (between 2.5% to 3%) and a modest decrease in the numbers of total used accounts (approximately 2%) relative to the previous methodology
• these changes are further described in Annex 2

3. Families and children using Tax-Free Childcare

The number of families and children using TFC remained high and broadly consistent this quarter, with a peak of 572,000 families using TFC for 702,000 children in June 2025 (Figure 1).

Government spending on TFC top-up also remained broadly consistent this quarter, ranging between £55.8 million in May 2025 and £57.7 million in June 2025 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Families using TFC accounts and government top-up paid (£million), by month

Figure 1 shows the number of families using Tax-Free Childcare accounts each month and total monthly government top-up. Key points of note from Figure 1 are:

• this quarter, the number of families using TFC was broadly consistent across all months, with 570,000, 569,000 and 572,000 families using TFC in April, May and June 2025 respectively
• Figure 1 shows a modest decrease in families using TFC between March 2025 (580,000 families) and April 2025 (570,000). Such a decrease (around 2%, or 10,000 families) is expected in line with a revised definition of ‘used’ accounts to only include those that are open at the time of use and therefore eligible for TFC top-up (denoted by the dashed line in Figure 1 and further described in Annex 2)
• government top-up, which is not affected by the methodological changes described above, remained remarkably consistent this quarter at £56.1 million, £55.8 million and £57.7 million in April, May and June 2025, respectively
• while increasing slightly relative to last quarter, spending remained at lower levels than its peak in July 2024 (£62.3 million)
• such changes in account use and spending (see Figure 2) are expected with the rollout of 15 and 30 hours funded childcare for children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive). See
• account use and government top-up typically varies by month. This can be due to school holidays, the number of payment days in a month and the day of the week on which a month ends (see Section 7, Figures 9 and 10)
• excepting monthly variability, the number of families using a Tax-Free Childcare account has steadily increased since launch with the exception of the period following March 2020, when the first COVID-19 lockdown began

Figure 2: Government top-up (£) per family using TFC, by month

Figure 2 shows government TFC top-up amount averaged by the number of families using TFC each month. Key points of note from Figure 2 are:

• monthly TFC top-up, as a per family average, remained broadly consistent this quarter, between £98 in April and May 2025 and £101 in June 2025, following a substantial decrease between July and November 2024
• prior to this, following the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown period, average monthly top-up per family had consistently remained between £100 and £120
• as such, while the number of families using TFC continues to increase, the amount government spend per family remains lower than historic levels
• this reduction in average spend is likely a result of the increased availability of funded childcare for young children, following the DfE scheme expansion to children aged 9 months to 1 year (inclusive) in September 2024, and is yet to be impacted by further expansion of the scheme in September 2025 (See )
• per family spending showed a modest increase between March 2025 (£95) and April 2025 (£98). A modest increase (around 2%) was expected due to the revised definition of used accounts described above (denoted by the dashed line in Figure 2 and further described in Annex 2)

4. Disabled children using Tax-Free Childcare

Disabled children are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare up to the age of 16 and can get up to a maximum of £4,000 top-up per year. Families with a disabled child have been able to apply for Tax-Free Childcare since its launch in April 2017.

TFC accounts where the child is disabled have gradually risen over time since 2021, both in number and as a percentage of all used TFC accounts. This trend has continued this quarter.

Figure 3: Number and percentage of used TFC accounts where the child is disabled

Figure 3 shows the number of disabled children with a used Tax-Free Childcare account and disabled children as a percentage of all children with used accounts. Key points of note from Figure 3 are:

• the number of used TFC accounts for children with disabilities continued to increase this quarter, rising month-on-month in May 2025 and June 2025
• since early 2021, the percentage of accounts where a child is disabled steadily increased, rising from 0.59% in February 2021 to its current peak of 1.14% in June 2025
• following a revised definition of used accounts for this publication (denoted by the dashed line in Figure 3 and further described in Annex 2), a modest decrease would be expected in the total number of disabled children, but this is masked by an overall increase in number

5. Account use by age of child

TFC is available for all children aged 11 and under and children aged 16 and under with a disability.

Account use has generally increased across all age groups since the introduction of TFC in 2017, but both overall trends and seasonal variability have varied considerably by age, including this quarter.

Figure 4: Children aged 0 to 4 using TFC accounts, by month and age of child

Figure 5: Children aged 5 to 16 using TFC accounts, by month and age of child

Figure 4 shows the number of children aged 0 to 4 using Tax-Free Childcare accounts by month and age of child, while Figure 5 shows the same for children aged 5 years and over. Key points of note from Figures 4 and 5 are:

• account use for children aged 0 to 2 showed a downward trend from April 2025 to June 2025, but remained within the range of usual seasonal variability
• changes in account use in these younger age groups are expected in the context of the expansion of DfE funded childcare: children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive) became eligible for 15 hours funded childcare in 2024, and will become eligible for 30 hours in September 2025 (See )
• children aged 3 remained broadly consistent from April to June 2025
• children aged 4 showed a month-on-month increase, rising to a peak of 100,000. Accounts used by children aged 4 follows a distinct seasonal pattern relating to the first academic year
• account use for children aged 5 to 10 (inclusive) was consistent across age groups, decreasing slightly in May 2025 and increasing again in June 2025, also remaining within the range of usual seasonal variability
• in general, the number of children aged 5 and above with used Tax-Free Childcare accounts is substantially lower than those aged 0 to 4 years. This is likely due to children of school age generally having lower childcare costs and hence, parents are less incentivised to take up Tax-Free Childcare
• a modest decrease in the total number of children in age group would be expected relative to last quarter (around 2%), following a revised definition of used accounts (denoted by the vertical dashed lines in Figures 4 and 5, further described in Annex 2)

6. Percentage of open accounts that are used

Not all Tax-Free Childcare accounts that are open are used. Reasons for this include:

• some families will open an account for a child and then decide not to use it
• funded 15 or 30 hours childcare and Tax-Free Childcare follow a joint application process: many families find that they are also eligible for Tax-Free Childcare and an account is opened for them, which they may not use (see Figures 7 and 8)
• not all Tax-Free Childcare accounts are used each month. For example, at the start of a school term, a family might make a payment for the whole period
• some families will open a Tax-Free Childcare account for one child which they go on to use, and at the same time, open accounts for other children in the family which are not used

Figure 6: Percentage of open, child-level TFC accounts that are used, by month

Figure 6 shows the percentage of open accounts that are used each month. Key points of note from Figure 6 are:

• children with used accounts as a percentage of open accounts remained stable this quarter between 46% to 47% in April, May and June 2025
• used accounts as a percentage of open accounts remains lower than the same period in previous years
• a lower percentage of used accounts relative to previous years is driven by an increased number of open but unused accounts for children aged 1 and 2, who became eligible for 15 hours funded childcare in September 2024 and April 2024 respectively (see Section 7, Figure 8)
• with respect to revised methodology this quarter (denoted by the dashed vertical line in Figure 6 and further described in Annex 2), percentage account use would be expected to be affected by both an increase in open account numbers (approximately 3%) and a decrease in used account numbers (approximately 2%)

7. Additional charts – expanding funded childcare availability and how it is affecting Tax-Free Childcare

Since September 2017, DfE previously offered 30 hours funded childcare to children of working parents aged 3 and 4 in England. An expansion of the scheme offered 15 hours funded childcare to children aged 2 in April 2024 and children aged 9 months and older in September 2024. A further expansion, offering 30 hours funded childcare for all children aged 4 and under is due in September 2025.

The DfE expansion has had 2 main impacts on TFC: an increase in the number of open accounts as a result of a joint application process, and a decrease in average government spend on TFC top-up, as a result of increased availability of funded childcare.

Regarding the number of open TFC accounts: the DfE scheme requires application in advance. As such, open accounts for children aged 2 increased in advance of 15 hours funded childcare availability prior to April 2024, and children aged 0 and 1 prior to September 2024. Subsequently, including this quarter, the number of open accounts has remained stable (Figure 7). To be able to access 30 hours funded childcare in September 2025, parents must apply by 31 August 2025, and this may have an impact on TFC account use in the coming months.

Correspondingly, the proportion of families overall with TFC accounts that are used and joined to a DfE 15 or 30 hours funded childcare account increased over time from 46% in December 2023, but remained stable at 78% in April, May and June 2025.

Regarding government spend: the number of TFC accounts had generally increased year-on-year since 2021, accompanied by a proportional increase in government top-up amount (Section 3: Figure 1, Figure 2). While account use remains higher in 2025 than previous years (Figure 9), government top-up has not increased to the same extent (Figure 10).

Figure 7: Children aged 0, 1 and 2 with open TFC accounts, by month

Figure 7 shows the number of children aged 0 to 2 years with open Tax-Free Childcare accounts by month and age of child. Key points of note from Figure 7 are:

• following a sharp increase in July and August 2024, open accounts for children aged 1 have shown more modest increases over time and this quarter remained stable at 208,000 in April, May and June 2025
• children aged 0, which includes some children with or approaching eligibility for funded childcare, similarly showed a sharp increase in open accounts in July and August 2024, but have since decreased to 29,000 children in June 2025
• open accounts for children aged 2, following a similar sharp increase in advance of funded childcare availability in April 2024, remained stable this quarter, between 240,000 and 241,000 from April to June 2025

Figure 8: Percentage of open accounts for children aged 1 and 2 that are used, by month

Figure 8 shows the percentage of open accounts for children aged 1 and 2, that are used, each month. Key points of note from Figure 8 are:

• from April 2021, the percentage of open accounts that are used for children aged 1 or 2 varied by month, but remained relatively stable between 79% and 81%
• in advance of the introduction of 15 hours funded childcare for these age groups in April and September 2024, increases in open accounts resulted in a reduction in the percentages of accounts that were used
• this quarter, percentages for both age groups remained relatively stable and broadly aligned, between 59% and 61% each month, continuing the trend of previous quarters
• the percentages of accounts that are used for children aged 1 and 2 remained higher than the percentage of all children (see Figure 6)

Figure 9: Number of children with used accounts by month and year from 2021

Figure 10: Government top-up paid (£million), by month and year from 2021

Figure 9 shows the number of children with used accounts each month split by year. Figure 10 shows total government top-up. Key points of note from Figures 9 and 10 are:

• the total number of children with used accounts has generally shown a seasonal trend, for example typically being lower in August, December and February during school holiday periods, but has increased overall each year since 2021 (Figure 9)
• government top-up has previously shown similar monthly variability to account use while also generally increasing year-on-year, but since 2023 and so far in 2025 has remained at a similar level (Figure 10)
• this reflects an increase in the number of children receiving TFC, but a lower per child spend on average (see Section 3, Figures 1 and 2)
• this quarter, the number of children with used TFC accounts has varied very little, ranging between 696,000 in May 2025 and 702,000 in June 2025
• government top-up, which is not affected by the methodological changes discussed here, remained remarkably consistent this quarter, ranging from £55.8 million in May 2025 to £57.7 million in June 2025

Annex 1 – Background to Tax-Free Childcare

Tax-Free Childcare was launched to the public in April 2017 with a phased rollout by age of the youngest child in a family, completed in February 2018. The full rollout schedule is shown below.

Tax-Free Childcare rollout dates by age of youngest child

Age	Date eligible
0 to 3 years	21 April 2017
4 years	June 2017
5 years	24 November 2017
6 to 8 years	15 January 2018
9 to 11 years	14 February 2018

Comparisons should not be made between months before March 2018, when initial rollout was complete, and more recent months. Since the rollout was phased by age of the youngest child in a family, older children appearing in the tables may have joined Tax-Free Childcare before their apparent rollout date.

Children must be aged 11 and under, or 16 and under if they have a disability, to be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. Families with a disabled child up to the age of 16 were able to sign up for Tax-Free Childcare in April 2017.

For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.

Tax-Free Childcare is run by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) with their delivery partners National Savings and Investments (NS&I). Accounts are fully online for the large majority of users. Parents pay into and make payments to childcare providers out of the same account. Parents are able to withdraw money for other purposes but lose the government top-up on anything removed.

An individual family may register for a Tax-Free Childcare account for multiple children. Separated or divorced parents cannot register an account separately for the same child.

In order to qualify for Tax-Free Childcare, families must have all adults earning the equivalent of at least the national minimum or living wage for 16 hours per week and can’t have income over £100,000 a year. They must not be claiming tax credits or universal credit in any form or other disqualifying benefits such as Job Seeker’s Allowance.

Since September 2017, families in England have also been able to use the government’s offer of 30 hours funded weekly childcare for children aged 3 or 4. Families can access this offer provided all parents are earning at least the equivalent of the national minimum or living wage for 16 hours a week, and don’t have a taxable income over £100,000 annually.

Unlike Tax-Free Childcare, families are eligible for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare if they receive tax credits or universal credit or childcare vouchers. Applications for both TFC and the DfE funded childcare scheme are linked and accessed through the same online portal.

When a family applies for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare and also meets the additional eligibility criteria for Tax-Free Childcare, a Tax-Free Childcare account is often opened, and vice versa. This leads to a discrepancy between ‘open’ and ‘used’ Tax-Free Childcare accounts, as shown in the commentary above and the tables accompanying this publication.

From April 2024, this offer was expanded to also include 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 2 years of eligible working parents. This was followed up by 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 9 months of eligible working parents in September 2024, and this will increase to 30 hours in September 2025.

Tax-Free Childcare replaced the childcare voucher and directly contracted childcare schemes, which closed to new entrants in October 2018. Tax-Free Childcare is available to families where one or more parents are self-employed. This is different to the employer supported childcare schemes, which are only available from some employers.

With childcare vouchers, a basic rate taxpayer can salary sacrifice up to £55 per week, with a maximum benefit of £933 per year per parent, whilst a higher rate payer can get up to £28 a week in vouchers. Whether a family is better off under Tax-Free Childcare or childcare vouchers will therefore depend on their circumstances.

Following the closure of childcare vouchers, parents who change employer and new parents are no longer able to receive childcare vouchers but may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. This should lead to an increase in take up of Tax-Free Childcare in the longer term, as these families look for childcare support.

Whether a family can access Tax-Free Childcare may also depend on their preferred childcare provider. Childcare providers need to be signed up to Tax-Free Childcare before a family can make payments to them.

A key factor in monthly usage, reported here and in the tables accompanying this publication is the number of working days within the month. A working day is defined as a weekday but excludes any national holidays. Further, seasonal variation also has an impact, such as lower usage during the August summer holidays. Each of these factors causes a degree of fluctuation from month to month distinct from longer-term trends.

Annex 2 – Glossary and methodological notes

Changes to definitions and methodology 2025

To improve the accuracy and quality of the figures reported in this publication, some figures were revised in 2025. These changes apply to annual figures from financial year 2024 to 2025 onwards (first published in the March 2025 publication), and monthly figures from April 2025 onwards (first published in the June 2025 publication). These changes were not applied to earlier figures and no revisions were made to prior published statistics.

Two key methodological changes were:

• open accounts now include accounts that were open and within a TFC eligibility period at any point during the month rather than at the end of a given month
• accounts that are no longer open can still be used to pay for childcare, but are not able to receive government top-up. Such accounts were previously included in the total numbers of used accounts for families and children, as well as age, disability and regional breakdown figures. From April 2025, used but not open accounts are no longer reported in TFC used account figures

These changes are further described where applicable below.

The expected impact of these changes in numbers presented here and in the accompanying tables, relative to previous methodology, would be a modest increase in the number of open accounts and a modest decrease in the number of used accounts. Differences in figures may not be evenly distributed across age groups and regions for example, given the differences in childcare schemes available to children of different ages or between the nations of the United Kingdom.

Open account

An open Tax-Free Childcare account is one where a family has successfully applied for TFC and is within an ‘eligibility period’ according to data held by HMRC on their administrative systems.

The eligibility period is the period in which families receive top-up on any payments made through their account and usually lasts around 3 months. At the end of this period families are required to reconfirm their eligibility, and the period starts anew.

From April 2025, monthly open account figures in Table 1 (families) and Table 2 (children) are calculated based on having an open eligibility period on any day within a given month. Figures prior to April 2025 were calculated on the basis of having an open eligibility period on the last day of each calendar month.

Similarly, for annual figures from the 2024 to 2025 financial year onwards, annual open account figures in Tables 1 and 2 include those with an open eligibility period at any point in the financial year. Prior to the 2024 to 2025 financial year, figures were calculated as the numbers with an open account on the last day of any of the 12 months from April to March.

Families or children are likely to have open accounts in multiple months of the year, but will only be counted once in the annual figures.

Used account

A used account is defined as a TFC account from which a payment is made to a childcare provider within the month or year according to transactions data provided to HMRC by National Savings and Investments.

From April 2025, monthly total figures were adjusted to include only accounts that had made payments and were also ‘open’ as defined above. Payments to childcare providers can still be made from accounts that are not open, but such accounts would not be eligible to receive TFC government top-up. Parents who are no longer eligible for TFC may decide to do this rather than withdraw funds from their TFC account. Prior to April 2025, these accounts were included in columns referencing families or children with ‘total’ used accounts.

From April 2024, in Tables 1 and 2, used ‘TFC only’ or used ‘TFC and 15/30 hours’, but not ‘total’ accounts include only accounts that were also open according to the relevant definition at the time of publication. From April 2025, this was expanded to include ‘TFC only’ or ‘TFC and 15/30 hours’ in all tables as well as the ‘total’ used accounts. Figures prior to April 2024 include any account from which a payment was made.

The methodological changes applied in calculating monthly figures from April 2025 were also applied to annual figures presented from the 2024 to 2025 financial year onwards.

For Table 1 and other tables referencing families, used accounts are calculated as the number of families making a payment in the period. For Table 2, and other tables referencing children, used accounts are calculated as the number of children whose parents make a payment to a childcare provider on the child’s behalf.

The annual number of used accounts will not equal the sum of the 12 months in the year. This is because most families or children have used accounts over multiple months.

Identifying a child and a family

Families who register for Tax-Free Childcare are assigned a unique claim identifier within HMRC’s internal data. Children whose parents register are also given a unique identifier. It is therefore possible to link data across multiple children where they belong to the same family.

The relationship between Tax-Free Childcare and 30 and 15 hours funded childcare

In September 2017, the government launched its offer of 30 funded hours of childcare in England for children aged 3 and 4 (although parents were able to apply for and therefore open a 30 hours account from April 2017).

From April 2024, this offer was expanded to also include 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children of eligible working parents aged 2 years. This was followed by 15 hours funded weekly childcare entitlement for children aged 9 months up to 2 years in September 2024. In September 2025, this will increase to 30 hours for children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive).

Parents apply and have their eligibility checked for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare via the childcare service, the online application for Tax-Free Childcare and funded childcare. If a parent is found to be eligible, they will be given a 15 or 30 hours eligibility code.

A parent should take this code along with their National Insurance number and their child’s date of birth to their chosen childcare provider. The provider will either directly, or via their local authority, use the Department for Education’s Eligibility Checking System (ECS) to confirm the validity of the code.

Once the funded hours eligibility code has been validated via the ECS, the child will be able to take up their 15 or 30 hours place.

In applying for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare, many families find that they are also eligible for Tax-Free Childcare and a Tax-Free Childcare account is often also opened for them. This contributes to the discrepancy between open and used Tax-Free Childcare accounts that is seen in the data in the tables accompanying this release, and discussed in Section 7 above.

For this reason, used accounts are considered as the best measure of take up of Tax-Free Childcare.

How the figures for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare in this publication differ from other sources

Department for Education publish their own data on the numbers of children benefiting from funded early education, including those in a 15 or 30 hours place. Statistics about education provision for children under 5 years of age are published by DfE on

Because Tax-Free Childcare statistics only publishes numbers of open 15 or 30 hours funded childcare accounts where they also have an open Tax-Free Childcare account, this publication should not be used as the lead source for 15 or 30 hours funded childcare data.

Additionally, HMRC’s 15 or 30 hours data only shows where an account has been opened and is within its eligibility period. Not all of these families will necessarily be making use of the 15 or 30 hours offer. This is because the Tax-Free Childcare system allows parents to renew eligibility for a 30 hours account until the start of the term following the child’s 5th birthday — to ensure children who defer school entry are able to access 30 hours funded childcare.

In some cases, this may mean that the child retains an open 30 hours account in HMRC’s data, even though they have started school and will therefore be unable to use the 30 hours offer.

Government top-up and how it is calculated

For every £8 a parent pays into their Tax-Free Childcare account the government will add an extra £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year. For disabled children the maximum is £4,000 per year.

The monthly and annual top-up amounts are the total top-up that the government has spent in this period. Annual totals are equal to the 12 months in the year. The monthly totals also include some backdated payments to families who did not initially receive their expected top-up.

Self-employed status

Self-employed parents were not eligible for childcare vouchers but are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. Statistics on self-employed users of TFC have been discontinued from the Tax-Free Childcare Statistics, June 2025 publication onwards, but are available in previous editions of the publication.

Disability flag

Children with a disability are defined according to a flag that exists on HMRC’s Tax-Free Childcare administrative data. HMRC has access to Department for Work and Pensions records to confirm where disability living allowance (DLA) or personal independence payments (PIP) are received for a child, or a child has a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI).

For monthly data, prior to April 2025, the latest record on a child’s disabled status was looked at the end of each calendar month. From April 2025, this was adjusted to look at any point within the calendar month.

For annual figures prior to the 2024 to 2025 financial year, monthly data sets were combined so that the annual numbers of disabled children, were those with an open or used account at any month in the year. For the March 2024 to April 2025 figures onwards, this calculation was adjusted slightly to include disability status at any point in the calendar year, rather than solely at the end of each calendar month.

Total open and used TFC accounts were added to in the Tables for the first time from April 2025, as the sum of those with TFC-only and joint 15 or 30 funded hours accounts. The used account total was previously included only in the commentary.

As described above, from April 2025, used account ‘total’, ‘TFC-only’ and ‘TFC and 15/30 hours’ used account figures for disabled children only include accounts that are ‘open’ according to the above definition when a payment was made (Table 3, Figure 3). Prior to April 2025, used account numbers included all accounts making payments.

Geographical allocation

In order to allocate a family to a region, parents’ details are linked to the postcode held on the HMRC central repository of address information. This data receives information from other HMRC tax and benefit administrative systems and from Department for Work and Pensions.

For annual data presented in Tables 8 to 13, a family’s latest available address record within the 12-month period is used. The sum of all regions in the tables may not equal the United Kingdom total because it has not been possible to allocate all families or children to a region. Families or children not allocated to a region are still counted within the United Kingdom total.

Regional breakdown monthly figures in Tables 6 and 7 are derived from postcode locations specific to the time of publication. These tables were first published in the December 2020 Tax-Free Childcare Statistics publication. For monthly data presented in Tables 6 and 7 from January 2021, postcode information was extracted soon after the end of the relevant quarter. For all months between April 2017 and October 2020, the postcode information used was extracted from administrative systems in September 2020.

This means that for all months before October 2020 accounts are displayed in the regions in which families were living in September 2020, so if a family was living in a different region before September 2020 this will not be reflected in the tables.

As described above, from April 2025, used account numbers broken down by region only include accounts that are ‘open’ according to the above definition when a payment was made, but prior to April 2025 included all accounts making payments (Tables 6 and 7).

Calculating children’s ages

Children’s ages are calculated using the child’s date of birth which HMRC holds on its administrative Tax-Free Childcare data. Ages are calculated on the last day of each calendar month, so where a child has a birthday in a particular month, they will be assigned to the older age category.

The sum of all ages in the tables may not equal the United Kingdom total if child date of birth information is not available. Children without a calculated age are still counted within the United Kingdom total.

As described above, from April 2025, used account numbers broken down by age only include accounts that are ‘open’ according to the above definition when a payment was made, but prior to April 2025 included all accounts making payments (Table 5, Figures 4 and 5).

Revisions

No revisions have been made this quarter.