Commentary on Sections Conditions of Eligibility Section 12: The person and his or her partner must not be in a relevant childcare scheme
69.Section 12 sets out the seventh condition of eligibility. This is that neither the person nor their partner (if they have one) is included in an Employer-Supported Childcare scheme which provides either childcare vouchers or directly-contracted childcare. This prevents a person receiving childcare support under this scheme and benefiting from these tax and NICs reliefs at the same time. However a person may continue to benefit from a workplace nursery provided by their employer and still remain eligible for support under this scheme.
70.Subsection (1) provides that a person meets this condition of eligibility if neither they nor their partner is an ‘eligible employee’ in respect of a ‘relevant childcare scheme’ on the date they make a declaration of eligibility. A ‘relevant childcare scheme’ is one in which an employer provides their employees with either childcare vouchers or directly-contracted childcare under Employer-Supported Childcare.
71.However, if the person making the declaration or their new partner (that is, a partner who was not their partner at the time of the person’s earlier declaration of eligibility) is an eligible employee the condition is met if the eligible employee intends to give their employer a ‘childcare account notice’. This is a notice informing the employer that they wish to leave the relevant childcare scheme in order to open a childcare account. This means that a person is allowed to wait until they are certain that they are eligible for the new scheme before they need to leave their Employer-Supported Childcare scheme.
72.Subsection (3) defines ‘eligible employee’ as having the meaning given by section 270AA or 318AZA of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, which are inserted by sections 63 and 64 of the Act.