The Childcare Payments (Eligibility) (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2025

Amendments to the Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015

2.—(1) The Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015(1) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 9 (the requirement to be in qualifying paid work), for paragraph (2) substitute—

“(2) For the purposes of this regulation, where a person—

(a) has accepted an offer of work on or before the date of the declaration of eligibility; or

(b) is absent from work on unpaid leave on the date of the declaration of eligibility and intends to return to work;

that person is to be treated as in paid work as an employed person during the applicable period.

(2A) In this regulation—

“applicable period” means, in respect of a person (“P”) the period specified in the entry in column 2 of the table which corresponds with the entry in column 1 of the table which contains, at the date that P makes the declaration of eligibility, P’s expected work start date.

Column 1	Column 2
P’s expected work start date falls in the period—	Applicable period—
(i) beginning with 1st February and ending with the next 30th April	begins with 1st January immediately preceding the start of the period specified in the first column and ends on the day before the day on which P starts or returns to work.
(ii) beginning with 1st May and ending with the next 30th September	begins with 1st April immediately preceding the start of the period specified in the first column and ends on the day before the day on which P starts or returns to work.
(iii) beginning with 1st October and ending with the next 31st January	begins with 1st September immediately preceding the start of the period specified in the first column and ends on the day before the day on which P starts or returns to work

“expected work start date” means the date, at the time the person makes the declaration of eligibility, on which a person expects to begin a new job or return to work after a period of absence on unpaid leave or leave within regulation 12(1)(b) to (g), (i) to (m), (p) or (q).”.

(3) In regulation 12 (qualifying paid work: time off in connection with sickness or parenting)—

(a) in paragraph (2), for “paragraphs (3), (4) and (5)” substitute “paragraphs (3) and (4)”,

(b) in paragraph (4), for the words from “only” to the end substitute “during the applicable period as defined in regulation 9(2A)”,

(c) omit paragraph (5), and

(d) in paragraph (7)(b), omit “, (h)”.

(1)

S.I. 2015/448, amended by S.I. 2017/1101 and 2025/201, there are other amending instruments but none is relevant.