2015 No. 537

Childcare
Payment Scheme

The Childcare Payments Act 2014 (Amendment) Regulations 2015

Made

Laid before Parliament

Coming into force

The Treasury make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 19(7) and 69(2) and (4)(b) of the Childcare Payments Act 20141.

Citation and commencement1

These Regulations may be cited as the Childcare Payments Act 2014 (Amendment) Regulations 2015 and come into force on 1st June 2015.

Increase in relevant maximum for disabled children2

1

Section 19 of the Childcare Payments Act 2014 (payments into childcare accounts) is amended as follows.

2

In subsection (5), for “is £2,000” substitute “is—

a

in the case of a disabled child, £4,000, and

b

in the case of any other child, £2,000.”.

3

At the end insert—

10

In subsection (5) “disabled child” is to be read in accordance with regulations made under section 14(1).

Gavin BarwellDavid EvennettTwo of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury
EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The Childcare Payments Act 2014 (c. 28) (“the Act”) introduces a scheme for supporting childcare, through payments (“top-up payments”) to parents and other persons who are responsible for a child, in order to enable those parents or other persons to work. To be eligible to receive top-up payments, a person must make payments for childcare from a childcare account, and top-up payments will be made, up to a maximum amount for an entitlement period (the “relevant maximum”). Section 19(5) of the Act specifies the relevant maximum.

These Regulations provide for an increased relevant maximum in respect of disabled children.

Regulation 1 provides for citation and commencement.

Regulation 2 amends section 19(5) of the Act to add a new relevant maximum in relation to disabled children. The term “disabled child” is not defined within the Act, so a new subsection (10) is added in order to refer to the definition of that term given in regulations made under section 14 of the Act, which defines a qualifying child for the purposes of the Act.

A full Impact Assessment of the effect that the childcare payments scheme will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from the gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-free-childcare-impact-assessment. It contains an accurate summary of the impacts of the scheme applying to this instrument.