We earn over £100k and can't get childcare funding – but couples earning £198k can

Tiny violins at the ready, please: I am about to spin you a tale of financial misfortune that is steeped in privilege.

Once upon a time in 2017, the government launched “Free Childcare for Working Parents”, a scheme offering parents of pre-schoolers in England 30 hours of free childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year. Households in which each parent earned between £6,240 (corresponding to 16 hours per week at the national minimum wage in 2017) and £100,000 per year could apply.

Nine years later, successive governments have attempted to tackle stubbornly high childcare costs by expanding the offer further. As of September 2025, parents of babies aged nine months or over became eligible for 30 hours of free term-time childcare. But most requirements remain unchanged.

Shorts

To meet the threshold, parents must still earn the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the national minimum wage, which these days comes to £10,574.72. And they still can’t earn over £100,000.