Tax free childcare question

Hi all hoping someone may be able to answer this as I can’t find an answer online. My daughter has started going to nursery one day a week and will move full time in September. Question is: can I start building up money in my gov tax free childcare account now so that there is a good amount of money in there for when the high nursery fees come in September? Basically a bit like a savings account for the time being? Many thanks

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That’s a good question, I don’t see why not 🤷‍♀️ it wouldn’t earn any interest or anything - would you be better off saving the money into an ISA/savings account that you can withdraw from - to earn interest?

Yes you can, obviously the more you pay in there the more you will get back from the gov until the max is reached BUT not you can’t take out the money the gov gives you it can only be paid to the nursery. We tend to pay the fees and then every 6months or so we get a ‘free’ month as the money we have accrued in there covers a month:

@Naomi oooh this is good idea! I winds me up that they don’t split the £500 equally over 3 months, we usually get the majority in month 1 then have to figure out what’s left for month 2 and then month 3 pay the whole invoice 🤣 might try this technique

Thanks all

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