What is the difference between 15 and 30 hours free childcare in England?

Full answer

Free childcare in England comes in two main strands of funded hours, and the headline difference is how many hours you get and the eligibility test. The 15-hours offer is the broader entitlement: all 3 and 4 year-olds qualify regardless of whether parents work, and younger children can qualify too. The 30-hours offer roughly doubles the support but is aimed squarely at working families. To get 30 hours, each parent (or the sole parent in a single-parent household) generally must expect to earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Living Wage -- in 2026/27 the NLW for those aged 21 and over is GBP 12.71 per hour -- and neither parent can have an adjusted net income above GBP 100,000. The GBP 100,000 cap matters because earning over it removes eligibility entirely, and it sits at the same point where the Personal Allowance starts to taper (GBP 1 lost for every GBP 2 over GBP 100,000), creating a 60% effective tax band between GBP 100,000 and GBP 125,140. A parent near that line should check whether a pension contribution that lowers adjusted net income could both cut tax and preserve the childcare entitlement. Funded hours are normally stretched over 38 weeks of the year (term time), though many providers let you spread fewer hours across more weeks. Government childcare support and benefit rates change frequently and the exact age-band rules are administered by gov.uk, so confirm your child's specific entitlement there. To model how a pay rise or pension contribution affects your adjusted net income around the GBP 100,000 threshold, use the take-home pay and pension calculators.

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