Tax free childcare account

It takes 20mins to make an account/apply, not to get a code unfortunately. :( Mine came back within a day or so but I did mine months ago, I seen another post saying it is taking longer but possibly due to doing it so close to the new ‘term’.. Hopefully they come back soon. Maybe speak to nursery and explain the situation? X

I know I’ve done it so close and always knew I’d probs have to pay a full amount before receiving the top up they do but I just wanted it in place before my little one started

Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll get everything in time. Because of the influx, things are taking a lot longer and people are waiting longer for the codes. You may need to speak to nursery to explain.

Bless you, I know, it is hard but you will get it and it will be sorted eventually ❤️. Xx

Mine came back almost instantly (but without email confirmation) so it's probably worth logging in each day or later in the day to check. 😊

Tax free childcare account!? What beautiful sorcery is this? Please educate me ladies, what is it - Is it like an HSA but for childcare?

@Meg tax free childcare (in UK), you put your childcare costs through the account (you and your partner (if you have one) need to earn a certain amount each month to get it) and every £8 you pay they pay £2, it is good, instead of this way you can also claim up to 85% of childcare costs through universal credit but that depends on your criteria. Xx

Once I’d done the application, it took 20 days for a response and the account was set up immediately so when I logged in it was there. They say it takes 10 days when you ring but the advisor I spoke to said because of the influx, it takes around 20 work days now

Ahhh ok. That does help. I'm in California so it doesn't apply but what a lovely benefit the UK is providing! 🇬🇧 💙

@Meg in the US, we have DCAP - Dependent Care Assistance Program. Payroll can deduct a certain amount each paycheck pre-tax so when you file taxes, your total pay is less that amount. With my job they deduct pretax, I pay my childcare bill, then payroll reimburses me what was deducted

It literally took the 7 days for me, on the 8th day I got the code and account opened. But when I topped it up I got the tax free amount straight away

Same day for me

I did mine like 2 weeks ago and we got a response immediately within 15 minutes

Can’t believe how much it varies?!

Thanks @Jessica

Mine took around 12 days and we did ours in July. At the time when we rang to see how much longer it would take, as we were needing to pay the first nursery bill, there was an automated message saying there was a huge influx of cases so it was taking up to 10 working days to process them.

It got approved yesterday which was 6 days x