The majority of people will need to be working and expecting to earn at least the national minimum wage or living wage for an average of 16 hours per week across the next 3 months. If you have a partner they will also need to meet these requirements. This means the income requirements will depend primarily on your age. For example, someone over the age of 25 earning the national living wage would need to expect to earn at least £1,813.76 in the next 3 month period. Those on sick leave, annual leave, shared parental leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, and adoption leave should also qualify although for adoption leave you will need to be returning to work within 31 days of application.
If you’re not working but your partner is then you may still qualify if you’re claiming incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance, carer’s allowance or contribution-based employment and support allowance.
For those who are waiting to start work you can also apply within 31 days of starting or restarting work.
Those that are self employed who struggle to meet the income requirements above for the next 3 months can take an average from how much profit they expect to make in the current tax year instead. This is because the earnings of the self employed tend to fluctuate a lot more. Where the self employment has commenced within the past 12 months the earnings limit will not apply.
If either you or your partner are a high earner with expected adjusted net income over £100,000 in the current tax year then you will not be eligible to apply for the tax free childcare scheme although there are currently some exceptions to this due to COVID-19 which you will find detailed below.