To be eligible to claim WAC funding the following eligibility criteria must be met:
- at least one partner (or single parent) is serving as an Armed Forces Regular (including Full Time Reserve Service Full Commitment). Service personnel will be eligible following their completion of Phase 1 training until their termination date (TX)
- service Personnel (SP) has either an assignment order to a UK based unit or is serving on an unaccompanied assignment overseas involuntarily with the family residing in the UK. Military Provost Guard Service personnel are not eligible
- dependent children aged 4 - 11 years old must attend school (including home schooled children) and be living with the Serving person for the majority of the time, except where separated for Service reasons (deployment, residential courses) or when Serving on unaccompanied assignments overseas involuntarily
- a Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) account must be set up with HMRC for each child. The childcare provider must also be signed up to the TFC scheme.
- partner must be in paid employment, starting or re-starting work within the next 31 days and have a weekly income equivalent to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage
- both partners must each have an adjusted net income of £100,000 or less per annum
- WAC providers must be Ofsted (or equivalent) registered (includes schools and childminders)
This policy captures the needs of those that are most likely to be impacted by mobility and or deployment which may make it harder for their families to access the wraparound childcare that they require.
A Service child in the context of this scheme is a child who the Service person has financial responsibility for, and the child lives with the Service person for the majority of the time; unless separated due to Service commitments (deployment, residential courses) or when Serving on unaccompanied assignments overseas involuntarily, with the family in the UK. Adopted children, children of long-term relationships and domestic partner children, where they meet the eligibility criteria, are eligible. Foster children are not eligible. Where the child is normally resident elsewhere for example with another natural parent or relative, the Service person will be unable to claim WAC funding. All children must be recorded on JPA; if the child is not recorded on JPA then WAC funding cannot be claimed.
To be eligible to claim WAC funding, Service personnel must ensure their children are recorded on JPA, your Service HR department will be able to assist with this.
WAC eligibility is based on Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) criteria set by HMRC, part of the eligibility criteria for TFC is that the parent has responsibility for the child. Fostered children are 'looked after children' and the Local Authority (LA) is responsible for them. The way the LA delivers its responsibility is by employing foster carers, but the LA remains responsible for the child.
There is no maximum number of children that can be accepted, as long as the eligibility criteria is met. The full 20 hours can be claimed for every eligible child.
Children will become eligible to claim WAC funding once they have turned 4 years old and attend school, including home school. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland this may be in Reception class. In Scotland, this may be Nursery. Most children start school full-time in September after their 4th birthday. Children remain eligible until the end of the academic year in which they turn 11, typically, their last day of primary school education.
No. The WAC funding can only be claimed for children who have turned 4 years old and have begun attending school.
If they receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA, including the new Scottish DLS), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or Armed Forces Independent Payment (AFIP), or are certified severely sight-impaired by an ophthalmologist, you will be able to claim WAC funding for your child until they turn 17- years-old (so long as all other eligibility criteria are met). You will be asked to provide evidence that they are in receipt of these allowances when you complete your registration. If your child becomes eligible for any of these allowances after your initial registration, you will need to make a change to your WAC registration on JPA.
Yes, as long as the eligibility criteria is met.
No, for the purpose of the WAC Scheme, children must live at home and attend school (including home school).
If they are on paid maternity leave, or in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay they will be eligible. If they are unpaid maternity leave, they will not be eligible.
No, they will not be eligible. Both parents (or sole parent in a lone parent family) must be in paid employment and have a weekly income equivalent to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage.
If you or your partner are on long term sick leave from work and continue to earn the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage, you can continue to claim WAC funding. If you or your partner do not continue to earn the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage, you will no longer be eligible to claim WAC funding.
Partners must be in paid employment, starting or re-starting work within the next 31 days and have a weekly income equivalent to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage. If a partner can’t work and is in receipt of certain Government allowances, you will be able to claim WAC funding if all the other eligibility criteria are met.
No, if either parent earns £100K or more they do not qualify for the WAC Scheme. If both parents earn less than £100K each, however, they will be eligible to claim WAC so long as they meet the minimum earning criteria. The upper income limit for WAC funding is based on the £100K figure dictated by HMRC in terms of TFC eligibility (this is also where the personal allowance starts to decrease). Parents not eligible for TFC will not be able to claim WAC funding. Parents need to be aware that if WAC funding pushes a parent over the £100K threshold, they will not be eligible for a TFC account and therefore will not be able to claim WAC funding.
If eligibility criteria is no longer met, Service personnel (SP) must not submit any further claims from the date the eligible status changed. If SP knowingly submit a fraudulent claim, they will be subject to administrative or disciplinary action. Service personnel should refer to Tax Free Childcare (TFC) guidelines as they may still be eligible for TFC.
The entitlement would stop; not because the Service person is deployed, but because both parents must be working (or taking up work in the next 31 days). Generally, were the Service person to be deployed, they would continue to be eligible to take part in the scheme so long as their partner continues to work and earns at least the equivalent of 16 hours per week at National Minimum or Living Wage.
At present, in line with existing Government policy, you will not be eligible to claim WAC funding.
If your partner earns the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage for apprentices, you will be eligible to claim WAC funding.
Families do not need to live on base to claim WAC funding.
Service personnel do not need to be married to be eligible to claim WAC funding.
If a child is weekly or full boarding at an independent or state boarding school, they are ineligible for WAC regardless of whether this is funded privately or by claiming CEA. Where a child attends an independent school as a day pupil regardless of whether this is funded privately or by CEA they are eligible for WAC funding (if all other eligibility criteria are met). Other MOD allowances will not be affected by claiming WAC funding.
WAC eligibility is based on Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) criteria set by HMRC. Income tests apply to the applicant and their partner, if any. Partner means someone you live with as husband and wife (or equivalent). If one parent has moved out, they don’t count as partner for the other parent. But anyone else who has moved in does. To qualify, the child will have to be living with the Service parent for the majority of the time except where separated due to Service commitments (deployment, residential courses) or when Serving on unaccompanied assignment overseas involuntarily, and the child must be recorded as a dependent child on JPA.
Service personnel serving on an unaccompanied assignment overseas involuntarily with the family residing in the UK, can continue to claim WAC funding so long as they continue to meet the eligibility criteria.
Service personnel serving on an unaccompanied assignment overseas involuntarily, who commute to their place of work overseas (e.g., Serving with NATO in Brussels), can claim WAC funding so long as their family resides in the UK, and they meet all other eligibility criteria.
