What replaced childcare vouchers in the UK?

Childcare vouchers closed to new applicants in October 2018. For the millions of parents who signed up before the cut-off, they were a lifeline. For everyone else, they simply never arrived.

Seven years on, the question parents and employers keep asking is the same: what's actually available now? Here is a straight answer.

Why the government closed childcare vouchers

The scheme was replaced by Tax-Free Childcare, a government top-up account run by HMRC. For every £8 you deposit, the government adds £2, up to £2,000 per child per year.

The intention was good. The execution has been poor. Uptake remains low because the system is complicated to set up, easy to fall foul of, and barely promoted. Many eligible families have never used it.

Your options in 2026

Tax-Free Childcare

Still worth claiming if you qualify. You save up to £2,000 per child per year, and it works alongside most other forms of support.

The catch: income limits are strict, the application trips people up, and the account needs active management. Plenty of families are entitled but never see the benefit.

Free childcare hours

Children aged 9 months to 4 years in England are entitled to between 15 and 30 funded hours per week, depending on age and working status. This covers a meaningful chunk of costs. But parents still pay for hours beyond the entitlement, meals, activities, and settling-in sessions. Most families are still writing invoices for £500 to £1,000 a month after funded hours.

Employer salary sacrifice schemes

Some employers offer nursery benefit schemes through salary sacrifice, which reduces an employee's taxable income and saves NI for both sides. The savings can be real.

The limitation: it only works where your employer has a formal contractual arrangement with a specific nursery. Most do not.

Childcare rewards apps

A newer category that works regardless of your employer, your nursery, or your tax situation. Kindo lets parents earn cashback on their nursery invoices at a guaranteed rate of 1.75%, redeemable at 190+ retailers including Amazon, Boots, IKEA, and M&S.

There is no switching required. You pay your nursery as normal by bank transfer, upload the invoice to the app, and Kindo issues points to your account. It works with any approved nursery in the UK.

How Kindo compares to old childcare vouchers

	Old childcare vouchers	Kindo
Still open to new members	No	Yes
Works with any nursery	Mostly	Yes
Employer involvement needed	Yes	Optional
App-based	No	Yes
Cashback on fees	No	Yes, guaranteed 1.75%
Redeemable at major retailers	No	Yes, 190+ brands

What employers should offer instead

Childcare is consistently one of the top reasons parents and especially mothers reduce their hours or leave the workforce. The companies paying attention to this are not waiting for a government scheme to make it easy for them.

Kindo works as an employer benefit without payroll integrations or nursery contracts. Your team gets real, visible value from day one. You show up as an employer that takes childcare seriously.

The bottom line

Tax-Free Childcare replaced vouchers on paper. In practice, it has not filled the gap.

The parents getting the most back in 2026 are combining their government entitlements with Kindo so they earn on every invoice, not just the ones a legacy scheme happens to cover.

Start earning cashback on your nursery fees →