TFC Calculator: UK Childcare

Chewy Bytes Limited

Contains adsIn-app purchases

About this app

IMPORTANT: TFC Calculator is an independent app from Chewy Bytes Limited. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to HMRC or the UK Government. For official information about the scheme, visit https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare

Tax-Free Childcare adds £500 of government top-up per child every 3 months, and each child's 3 months start on their own date. TFC Calculator keeps a running total for every child, so you know what to pay in before you pay it.

HOW IT WORKS
Add each child with their date of birth, the start date of their current eligibility period as shown in your childcare account, and any top-up already received in it. After that, you only type in what the childcare costs.

TFC Calculator then works out:
- how much you need to pay into your childcare account
- how much the government adds on top, which is 25% of your deposit, or 20% of the total childcare bill
- how much top-up that child has left in the current eligibility period

When an eligibility period ends, the app says so and asks for the new start date, instead of carrying on with figures that no longer apply.

NEVER GO OVER THE LIMIT
The top-up stops at £500 per child every 3 months. Go past it and the rest of the bill comes entirely out of your own pocket. TFC Calculator shows what is left of that £500 before you make the payment, not after your childcare account has turned the top-up down, and the days left in the period.

Children who qualify for the higher disabled rate get £1,000 every 3 months, and stay eligible until the 1 September after their 16th birthday rather than their 11th. Turn the switch on when you add the child and every figure follows the higher limit.

EVERY CHILD, TRACKED SEPARATELY
Eligibility periods rarely start on the same date, so one child can be close to their limit while another has most of theirs left. Each child gets their own period, countdown and top-up limit, so there is nothing to keep straight in your head.

KEEP A RECORD
Confirm a payment and it is saved against that child. The history screen lists the payments in the current eligibility period with the running top-up total, and the CSV export gives you every child and every payment recorded, ready to open in a spreadsheet.

YOUR RECORDS STAY ON YOUR PHONE
No account, no sign-in, no registration. Everything you enter is stored on your own device, and your children's names, their dates of birth and your payment notes are never sent anywhere. The app never connects to your childcare account, never asks for your HMRC sign-in details and never moves money. It does send anonymous usage and crash statistics, a child's age in years and the amounts calculated, never a name, so faults can be found and fixed, and the adverts are supplied by Google. The Data safety section lists everything.

WHO IT IS FOR
Parents and carers paying a registered childminder, nursery, preschool, school, after-school club, holiday club or wraparound care through a Tax-Free Childcare account.

This app covers Tax-Free Childcare only, the childcare account where the government adds £2 for every £8 you pay in. It does not cover Child Benefit, Universal Credit childcare costs or the funded childcare hours.

FREE, WITH ADVERTS
Every calculation in the app is free. The app is paid for by adverts: a banner on the main screens, and a full-screen advert before a data export. One optional one-off purchase removes them for good. It is a single payment, not a subscription: there is nothing to renew and nothing to cancel.

The app opens with an example child and an example payment so you can see how everything fits together. Delete the child and add your own.

TFC Calculator is a guidance tool, not a replacement for your childcare account. Always check your own account, and gov.uk, for the final figures.

Support: https://tfccalculator.co.uk/support
Built in the UK by Chewy Bytes Limited.