Tax-Free Childcare for breakfast, after-school and holiday clubs
Many of the working families who use your club can pay for it from a Tax-Free Childcare account, with the government adding a quarter of what they put in. This page says what the scheme is, what your club has to do to be paid through it, and what ClubDock does with those payments today.
Free in any month under £500 of sessions. No card needed to start.
What Tax-Free Childcare is
£2 for every £8
A parent opens a childcare account online and pays money into it. For every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2. They then pay their childcare providers from that account.
Up to £2,000 a year for each child
The top-up is capped at £500 every 3 months for each child, which is up to £2,000 a year. For a disabled child it is £1,000 every 3 months, up to £4,000 a year.
Until the September after they turn 11
A child is eligible until the September after their 11th birthday, or the September after their 16th if they are disabled. Parents usually need to be working, and cannot get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as Universal Credit or childcare vouchers.
Parents reconfirm every 3 months
To keep getting it, a parent must sign in to their childcare account every 3 months and confirm their details are up to date. A family that misses it loses the top-up until they do, which is worth knowing when a regular payment does not arrive.
Only approved providers can be paid
The money can only go to an approved childcare provider that has signed up to the scheme: a registered childminder, nanny, playscheme, nursery or club, among others. GOV.UK names breakfast clubs, after-school clubs and holiday clubs, and extras such as meals and trips where the provider supplies them.
Checked against GOV.UK on 10 October 2026: Tax-Free Childcare, Sign up to Tax-Free Childcare if you’re a childcare provider, Sign in to your childcare provider account for Tax-Free Childcare. HMRC sets the scheme's rules and can change them, so check there before telling a family what they are entitled to.
What your club has to do
Parents cannot pay you from their childcare account until you are signed up with HMRC as a childcare provider. Nothing in ClubDock can do this part for you.
- Be an approved or registered childcare provider, registered with your regulator, such as Ofsted.
- Wait for HMRC’s letter. It is sent once your regulator has passed your details on, and carries the 11-digit user ID you sign up with. If it has not come, the Childcare Service helpline can help.
- Sign up for a childcare provider account with that user ID, your bank details and the business postcode your regulator holds for you.
- Update your details on the account so that parents can pay you. Signing up alone is not enough.
Once you are signed up, a parent finds your club in their account by name, address, postcode or regulator reference. Each payment reaches your bank with the child's reference on it: four letters from the child's name, five numbers and TFC, such as AJON12345TFC. A refund goes back to the parent's childcare account, not their own bank.
How ClubDock handles Tax-Free Childcare
Parents choose it when they book
Switch Tax-Free Childcare on as a way to pay, with the instructions a parent needs to find your club in their account. ClubDock will not switch it on without them, because for this method the instructions are how the money reaches you. A parent who chooses it is booked straight away, sees your instructions and the reference to use, and pays you from their childcare account afterwards.
The child's reference is on file
Your registration form has a box for each child's Tax-Free Childcare reference. A parent who chooses Tax-Free Childcare without one is asked for it at checkout, before they can book, because without it the payment on your statement cannot be matched. If your club uses Xero or QuickBooks, the reference is on each child's invoice line.
You record the payment when it arrives
When the money reaches your bank, you record it against the booking as Tax-Free Childcare, and the booking shows what is paid and what is left. If you use Xero or QuickBooks, you reconcile it there instead and it comes back to ClubDock as paid. ClubDock does not connect to your Tax-Free Childcare account, so it cannot tell you a payment has arrived on its own.
Refunds and receipts get it right
When you refund a booking paid by Tax-Free Childcare, ClubDock says the money must go back to the childcare account, not the parent's bank. The payment receipts a parent downloads for their own records show each payment as Tax-Free Childcare.
Questions
- Does my club have to sign up to accept Tax-Free Childcare?
- Yes. A parent can only pay a childcare provider that is approved or registered and has signed up with HMRC for a childcare provider account. HMRC writes to you with a user ID once your regulator, usually Ofsted, has passed your details on, and you sign up with it.
- How does a parent pay our club from Tax-Free Childcare?
- They sign in to their childcare account on GOV.UK, find your club by its name, address, postcode or regulator reference, and send the payment. It arrives in your bank account with the child’s Tax-Free Childcare reference on it, which looks like AJON12345TFC.
- How long does a Tax-Free Childcare payment take to reach us?
- GOV.UK says a payment of up to £2,000 should reach your bank within 24 hours, depending on your bank, and one of £2,001 or more can take 3 to 5 working days.
- How do we match a Tax-Free Childcare payment to a booking in ClubDock?
- By the child’s reference. ClubDock keeps each child’s Tax-Free Childcare reference on their record and asks a parent for it at checkout if it is missing, so the reference on your bank statement tells you whose payment it is. You then record the payment against the booking. ClubDock does not read your Tax-Free Childcare account itself.
- How do we refund a Tax-Free Childcare payment?
- Back to the parent’s childcare account, never to their own bank, from the bank account that received it. GOV.UK says to ask the parent for their 13-digit childcare account number, which starts 1100, and to pay by Faster Payment or Bacs, not CHAPS or cheque. ClubDock’s refund screen says the same when the money came from Tax-Free Childcare.
- Can a parent pay with childcare vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare?
- Not for the same childcare. A family cannot get Tax-Free Childcare while it is still getting childcare vouchers. You can go on accepting vouchers from families who use them, and ClubDock takes both as separate ways to pay.
- Does ClubDock charge anything for Tax-Free Childcare payments?
- No. ClubDock charges nothing per booking and takes nothing from what parents pay you. Its bill is by the month: nothing in a month your club runs under £500 of sessions, £18 or £36 above that, with Tax-Free Childcare included.
See it with your own club
Any month under £500 of sessions is free. No card needed to start.