Changes to your childcare arrangements and tax credits

If you are getting tax credits to help with the costs of childcare, it's important to tell the Tax Credit Office straight away about any changes to your childcare arrangements. These include, for example, changes to your childcare provider, your childcare costs going up or down, getting childcare vouchers from your employer or help with your costs from the local authority.

On this page:

Your childcare provider stops being approved or registered
You change your childcare provider
Changes to your childcare costs
You get help from someone else towards your childcare costs
Contact the Tax Credit Office
More useful links

Your childcare provider stops being approved or registered

You must tell the Tax Credit Office if any of the following applies to your childcare provider:

they have lost their registration or approval
they decide not to renew their registration or approval
their registration or approval has run out - you must tell the Tax Credit Office even if they have applied to renew their registration

Ask your childcare provider how you can keep up to date with any of these changes. For example your provider may regularly need to renew their registration with Ofsted or approval under a Childcare Approval Scheme. Check what date it runs out and ask to see the new proof of their approval or registration.

It's important that you tell the Tax Credit Office about these changes within one month. If you don't you could be paid too much money and have to pay it back. You may also have to pay a penalty of up to £300.

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You change your childcare provider

If you change to another childcare provider who isn’t registered or approved

You must tell the Tax Credit Office immediately and at the latest within one month if you change to a child care provider (including a relative) who is not registered or approved for tax credits purposes.

If you don't tell the Tax Credit Office on time, you could be building up an overpayment which you may have to pay back and you could be charged a penalty.

What is registered or approved childcare for tax credits?

If you change to another registered or approved childcare provider

You should tell the Tax Credit Office if you change to a different registered or approved childcare provider. This won’t usually affect the amount of tax credits you get if all your other circumstances stay the same. The Tax Credit Office may need to contact your childcare provider from time to time to make checks. If they are unable to contact your provider, they may stop paying your tax credits.

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Changes to your childcare costs

If your childcare costs go down or stop

You must work out your new average weekly childcare costs in the same way that you did when you made your original claim.

For help working out your average weekly childcare costs, you can follow the link below or call the Tax Credit Helpline on Tel 0845 300 3900 or Textphone 0845 300 3909.

Childcare costs – how to work them out to claim tax credits

You must tell the Tax Credit Office within one month if:

you normally pay fixed weekly childcare costs and your actual costs go down by £10 a week or more - and the change applies in each week for four weeks in a row
you pay the same amount every month or different amounts for childcare at different times, for example, you pay more in the school holidays than you do during term time and your new average weekly costs go down by £10 or more
you stop paying childcare costs

If this happens, your tax credit payments are likely to go down if all your other circumstances stay the same. If you do not tell the Tax Credit Office within one month, you may be building up an overpayment which you may have to pay back. You might also have to pay a penalty of up to £300.

Find out how to repay overpaid tax credits

If your childcare costs go up

You must work out your new average weekly childcare costs in the same way that you did when you made your original claim.

For help working out your average weekly childcare costs, you can follow the link below or call the Tax Credit Helpline on Tel 0845 300 3900 or Textphone 0845 300 3909.

Childcare costs – how to work them out to claim tax credits

It is important to tell the Tax Credit Office straight away if:

you normally pay fixed weekly childcare costs and your actual costs go up by £10 a week or more - and the change applies in each week for four weeks in a row
you pay the same amount every month or different amounts at different times and your new average weekly childcare costs are at least £10 more than your current costs

If you are getting tax credits for fixed weekly childcare costs, and the costs are about to change, you can tell the Tax Credit Office at the start of the first week of the change. Make sure first of all that you are sure that it will last for at least the next four weeks.

If your childcare costs go up and all your other circumstances stay the same, you may be able to get more money. The increase in your payments will happen from the first week of the change as long as you report the change within three months of it happening. This is because any increase to your payments can only be backdated by up to three months.

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You get help from someone else towards your childcare costs

You should tell the Tax Credit Office immediately - and at the latest within one month - if any of the following applies:

your employer gives you cash or childcare vouchers towards the cost of your childcare
your employer provides a free or subsidised nursery place
your local authority or education authority pays any of your childcare costs, for example early learning or nursery education if your child is under five
you get any other government funding towards your childcare costs, for example if the Department for Work and Pensions pays any of your costs to help you start work
you get help from anywhere else towards your childcare costs, for example, from a relative or ex-partner

If this happens, your tax credits are likely to go down if all your other circumstances stay the same. If you do not report the change, you could be overpaid tax credits which you will have to pay back. You may also have to pay a penalty of up to £300 if you delay in reporting the change.

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Contact the Tax Credit Office

If you need more help you can call the Tax Credits Helpline which is open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. The numbers you can ring are:

Tel 0845 300 3900
Textphone 0845 300 3909 - if you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment

If you're calling from overseas you can also contact the Tax Credit Office on Tel + 44 289 053 8192.

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