Eligible working parents in England can get up to 30 hours a week of government-funded childcare for children aged nine months up to four years old09:47, 11 Sep 2026Around 12,000 parents are expected to turn down pay rises to keep their income below the threshold for free childcare, according to new analysis.‌Eligible working parents in England can get up to 30 hours a week of government-funded childcare for children aged nine months up to four years old. But families do not qualify for free childcare if either parent has an adjusted net income above £100,000.‌In a new report, researchers from the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation (CenTax) estimate that there will be nearly 12,000 parents holding their incomes down to avoid the threshold by 2030. This is up from just 1,100 parents who avoided pay rises in 2022.‌The increase is largely down to free childcare being extended to 9 month olds in April 2024. The report also claims that the average parent crossing this “cliff edge” will have to earn £124,000, to be no worse off after losing their free childcare. In 2022, parents would have had to earn roughly £105,000.CenTax estimates that the cost of completely removing the threshold for the free childcare entitlement would be around £640million in 2030, while increasing it to £125,000 would cost around £100million.‌Arun Advani, Director of CenTax and Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, said: “Our analysis shows the childcare cliff-edge stands to grow dramatically by the end of this parliament, but there are solutions available to the Government – including the opportunity to prevent parents whose incomes exceed the threshold from claiming free childcare.”Jack Pepin-Hall, Research Economist at CenTax, added: “If the Government chooses to keep an income test for free childcare, it should at least be based on parents’ actual reported incomes instead of what they claim they expect their incomes to be. As well as being fairer, this change would enable the Government to raise the threshold to just over £110k at no extra cost overall.”‌Free childcare rules explainedIf your child is between the age of nine months and two years old, you must be earning the equivalent of the national minimum wage for 16 hours a week, on average, but less than £100,000 a year, to qualify for free childcare.This applies to both parents if you're in a couple. All parents of three and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours free childcare a week as standard, regardless of whether they are in work.Working parents with children of these ages can claim the full 30 hours if they meet the earnings criteria.Article continues belowFree childcare hours are usually taken over 38 weeks to cover term time, but you can normally spread it out to cover more weeks by using fewer hours a week.The free hours must be used with a registered childcare minder, such as some private nurseries or state-run pre-schools. You have to register for free childcare through GOV.UK.The rules above apply to England. There are separate free childcare systems in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.