If you're on Universal Credit and working, you can claim back 85% of your registered childcare costs every month. It's one of the most valuable benefits available to working parents — and one of the most poorly understood. Here's exactly how it works and how to claim it.
Rate
Of registered childcare costs reimbursed
Max — 1 child
Per month (2026/27 rate)
Max — 2+ children
Per month (2026/27 rate)
Paid
You pay first, claim back after
To claim the UC childcare element you need to meet three conditions:
You must be in paid work — or have a confirmed job offer starting before the end of your next assessment period. You cannot claim if you are not working, looking for work, or on a zero-hours contract where you haven't worked that month.
If you have a partner, they must also be working — unless they are unable to look after the children due to a disability or health condition, or they have regular caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person.
Your childcare provider must be registered — with Ofsted in England, or the equivalent regulator in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. This includes nurseries, registered childminders, nannies registered with Ofsted, after-school clubs, breakfast clubs, holiday clubs and play-schemes. It does not include care provided by a close relative of the child, or any unregistered provider.
You can claim for children up to age 16 — specifically until the 31 August after their 16th birthday. This covers after-school and holiday club costs for school-age children, not just nursery fees for young children.
You can claim back 85% of what you actually pay, up to a monthly cap. For 2026/27 those caps are £1,071.09 per month for one child and £1,836.16 per month for two or more children.
Note that the cap applies to your total reimbursement, not per child. So if you have three children in nursery costing £2,500/month combined, your maximum claim is still £1,836.16 — not three times the single-child cap.
Example: one child, £900/month nursery cost
This is the part that trips most families up. UC childcare is paid in arrears. That means you pay the nursery this month, report the costs to UC, and get reimbursed in next month's payment. You are always one month behind.
For families on tight budgets, finding £900+ upfront before the reimbursement arrives is genuinely difficult. There are two ways to deal with it:
The Flexible Support Fund — if you are starting a new job or increasing your hours, you can ask your work coach for an upfront payment through the Flexible Support Fund to cover your first month's childcare costs. This is a grant, not a loan — you don't pay it back. Ask specifically for this; it's not automatically offered.
UC advance payment — if you can't access the Flexible Support Fund, you can ask for a UC advance to cover upfront childcare costs. This is repaid from future UC payments over time, so use it as a last resort.
Search for your nursery, childminder or club on the Ofsted register at reports.ofsted.gov.uk. If they're not listed, UC won't cover their fees. Ask your provider for their Ofsted registration number and check it's current.
UC childcare is always paid after the fact. Pay your provider on whatever schedule they require and get a receipt or invoice showing the dates childcare was provided, the amount paid, and the provider's details.
Go to your Universal Credit online account. In the To-Do section or via your journal, find the childcare costs section. Report what you paid, the dates covered, and the name of the provider. You need to do this every month — it doesn't carry over automatically.
You must provide evidence of what you paid. This means a receipt or invoice showing: the provider's name, their registration number if possible, the dates childcare was provided, and the amount charged. A bank statement showing the payment is helpful but usually not sufficient on its own — get a proper invoice from your provider.
The childcare element is included in your next monthly UC payment. Your UC statement will show a separate line for childcare costs. If it's missing or lower than expected, send a journal message to your work coach with your receipts attached.
Time limit for reporting: You must report childcare costs within the assessment period they occurred, or the following assessment period. If you miss this window, you lose that month's reimbursement. Set a monthly reminder the day after your assessment period starts to report your previous month's costs.
DWP can be strict about evidence. The ideal receipt or invoice includes the provider's name and address, their Ofsted registration number, the specific dates childcare was provided, the total amount charged, and confirmation that payment was made. If your provider gives informal receipts — handwritten or without dates — ask them to issue proper invoices. Many nurseries will do this without question once you explain you need it for UC.
A bank transfer record showing the payment helps but must be accompanied by an invoice from the provider. Cash payments are harder to evidence — if you pay cash, make sure you get a signed receipt with all the details above.
The most common mistake is missing the reporting deadline. Your UC assessment period runs for a month from a fixed date — for example the 10th to the 9th of the following month. Childcare costs paid during that period must be reported by the end of the next assessment period.
Miss that and the costs are simply not reimbursed. There's no backdating. DWP will not make exceptions. The fix is simple: report costs as soon as you pay them, not at the end of the month.
You cannot use both. If you're on UC, you cannot use Tax-Free Childcare — and if you open a Tax-Free Childcare account while on UC, your UC stops entirely. Always stick with UC childcare if you're claiming UC. The 85% rate is almost always worth more than Tax-Free Childcare's 20% top-up for families on UC. We've written a full comparison of both schemes here if you want to see the numbers side by side.
Our tool calculates your UC childcare entitlement based on your actual costs and situation — alongside every other entitlement available to your family.
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