Commentary on Sections Childcare Accounts Section 18: Cases where there is more than one eligible person
92.Section 18 deals with situations where two or more persons are eligible to hold a childcare account for a child, but they cannot decide between themselves who should have the active account and, therefore, receive top-up payments. This could happen if one person already has an active childcare account and another person wishes to either open one, or to reactivate an existing inactive one, in respect of the same child.
93.In such cases, HMRC will be able to decide which of them, if any, should be allowed to hold an account. If HMRC decide that a person who holds an active childcare account for a child should no longer have the active childcare account, they will be able to impose an account restriction order on that person’s childcare account under section 24, so that the other person can have an active childcare account.
94.Subsection (3) is a signpost to the provision (section 24) enabling HMRC to make an account restriction order to give effect to their decision.