HMRC Childcare top up "remaining for period" - how does it work?

werutd

I've only recently started paying money in and intend to use the maximum. After making payments of £480 in September and £500 in October to check everything was working, I got government contributions of £120 and £125 as expected.

I then looked at my account status which said "You can get a maximum of £516.48 from government for each entitlement period. You've £319.48 left for this period." so I then paid in £1450 (intending to use up most of the rest of my entitlement in one go). However this time my top up from HMRC was only £271.48, and now it says I have £217.80 left for this period???

I'm assuming the entitlement period is three months. How do they calculate the amount you have left for the period? It seems wrong to me, however looking at the three top ups I have had they do add up exactly to £516.48. From the numbers they were giving I had assumed a new period must have started in October.

Also I thought the entitlement was £500 per 3 months, not £516.48.

Ideally I want to just setup a standing order for the correct amount per month (£666 I assume!?), but now don't know when its "safe" to start the payments.

Icequeen99

When did your entitlement period start?

It should be £500 every 3 months unless you had an odd first entitlement period length.

You would know if a new entitlement period started because you would have been asked to reconfirm ahead of it.

IQ

werutd

It says reconfirmation required on the 23rd November. Where its telling me the figure of £217.80 left this period must be wrong, I'm sure they won't top up any further contributions (I'm not going to try).